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Physical Sense Of Security Leads To ‘Trust’ Online
Published Mar 14, 2010
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Growing adoption of web services along with a sense of trust and security, fostered by low crime rates in the Middle East, is leaving people in the region vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
In an interview with Chris Johnson, EMEA vice president at RSA, The Security Division of EMC, he revealed that customers that use online banking services are particularly at risk.
"The Middle East are embracing online, embracing mobile and anything else that allows them to access their money without fear of bad user experience and inconvenience. This is typically what a fraudster loves! They love an environment where people demand certain ‘easy to use' services; services that are brought to market to deliver strong flexibility and usability but not necessarily balanced with good levels of security and risk mitigation," Jackson explains.
Online banking is expected to provide a rich lucrative playground for fraudsters in the coming years as the region, which has a reputation for wealth, continues to launch more consumer-oriented services.
The level of fraud and electronic crime in the region is said to lag the United Kingdom and United States by 9-12 months, with another interesting dimension of physical security added to the mix.
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"We think that a strong cultural sense of security (physical) will lead to a ‘feeling' that consumers are secure online - the crime rates are low in the Middle East and people feel safe - this will initially translate online and therefore people will expect that their security is assured," he added.
There's been talk of increasing malware targeting and originating from the Middle East with Kaspersky naming Egypt as one of the top password Trojan creating countries and the same country being targeted by the Kneber Zeus botnet. RSA believes that the trend is unsurprising if one factors in economic conditions.
"I think it's fair to say that, in countries which have developed large pools of talented engineers but perhaps local market conditions on the whole make good salaries currently hard to come by, we tend to see spikes of activity in malware development. We've seen similar patterns of ‘hot spots' of activity emerge over the years in both South America and Eastern Europe, "stated Jackson.
Jackson added that the Middle East is the fastest growing contributor to RSA's EMEA business, with clients including "some of the biggest brands in key sectors" such as financial services, telecoms and oil and gas.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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