A recent cybercrime report published by Norton for the 2011, brings some very disturbing figures about the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to light.
- Two UAE residents are cybercrime victims every minute
- 76% of UAE residents are victims of cybercrime
- UAE residents spent on average 16 days trying to resolve cybercrime attacks
- About $611.3 million has been lost to cybercrimes, $209.7 million in actual cost, with the remainder equalling the cost of recovery over the 12 months the study was conducted.
- 56% of the UAE's population uses mobile internet. Of that number, 20% were victims of cybercrime.
- Mobile security threats in the UAE are reported to be growing at an alarming rate.
Adoption of the mobile internet shows no signs of slowing down, so increasing numbers of mobile users are in danger of having their systems hacked. They also face the danger of having hackers steal their personal information (user IDs and passwords, for example). Worst of all, with the popularity of mobile banking increasing daily, mobile internet users risk having hackers steal their hard-earned cash. These threats are especially high on open source platforms such as Android.
Factorsthat contributed to the rise in cybercrime in the UAE include social media, unemployment, ease of attaining tools to conduct attacks, lack of awareness.
Although the current situation may seem bad, but it does create huge opportunities for operators​ to harvest on using applications and cloud services.
