commerce www.bahrainthismonth.com 66 November 2022 Kaspersky’s recent Financial Cyberthreats report has stated that attacks are becoming increasingly corporate rather than consumer focused. According to Kaspersky Security Network, financial threat detections targeting businesses were growing in the Middle East in Q2 2022. Financial phishing aimed at organisations also stay high. Business-related financial threat detections increased nearly fourfold in the Middle East in Q2 – by 286 percent compared to the previous quarter. These detections are specific to Banking Trojans, which is a malware commonly used to steal data stored or processed through online banking systems, e-payment systems and plastic card systems. As for Bahrain, it saw a decrease by 52 percent in Q2 of 2022 compared the Q1 of the same year. Financial threats targeting businesses in Saudi Arabia and Qatar also witnessed a decrease in the same type of threats. According to the Kaspersky telemetry, in the first half of 2022, a total of 99,155 financial phishing attacks aimed at organisations were detected and blocked by Kaspersky solutions in Bahrain. Majority of them (82 percent) were targeting banks, while 10 percent were for online shopping outlets, and 8 percent were against payment systems such as PayPal, ApplePay and others in the country. FINANCIAL CYBERTHREATS TARGETING BAHRAIN BUSINESSES DROP BY 52 PERCENT The Corporate Communication and Marketing Committee under the umbrella of the Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB) held a meeting at the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) headquarters to discuss the executive plan of a national campaign to raise awareness of the various digital fraud targeting customers of financial and banking institutions. The campaign will be launched in partnership with the Central Bank of Bahrain, Ministry of Interior’s General Directorate of Anti-Corruption Economic and Electronic Security, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and members of the association in the financial sector. CEO of BAB, Dr. Waheed Al Qassim, says: “The national campaign plays an important role in keeping the Kingdom of Bahrain among the developed nations in the field of cybersecurity as a crucial pillar for progress in the development of digital banking services.” Corporate Communications and Marketing Committee Deputy Head, Nadera Abuali said: “Fraudsters are constantly developing their techniques which requires us to step up efforts to raise awareness of these techniques. Our aim is to educate customers on the importance of maintaining their data security and what action to take should they be subjected to a fraud attempt.” Further details on the national campaign will be shared in due course. CAMPAIGN TO BOOST DIGITAL FRAUD AWARENESS IN BAHRAIN BIC ICT AND DIGITISATION SENIOR MANAGER RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS NOMINATION Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) ICT and Digitisation Senior Manager, Khalifa Al Ansari, has been honoured with a prestigious nomination at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation. The event was organised by the International Group for Artificial Intelligence and UAE company Global Enterprise Channel (GEC) and held as part of The World CIO 200 Summit, Bahrain Edition, at The ART Hotel and Resort. The event was held under the patronage of the First Deputy President of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, President of the General Sports Authority and President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa. Through the conference, Mr. Al Ansari was honoured in the category of distinguished IT managers who led different digital transformation projects. The nomination was based on an evaluation of different projects and achievements during his career which have contributed to digital transformation.
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