More than 79 per cent of Gulf businesses have been hit by viruses in the last six months of 2009, according to survey conducted by Trend Micro, a global leader in Internet content security.

The survey conducted by Trend Micro at GITEX 2009 also revealed that 57 per cent of the region's businesses have actually had two or more virus attacks in the past six months alone.

The survey of more than 800 executives revealed that 29 per cent store all their personal data in their work PC, while 14 per cent said they have no confidence in the company’s IT security software.

According to the survey, a staggering 98 per cent admitted to surfing the internet for non-work related activities, while 42 per cent admitted to doing this regularly, with 31 per cent spending one to four during work time.

“About 92 per cent of all attacks have a web component and organisations need to ensure that they are protecting their business from loss of data, credibility and money. Our dependence on the Web raises our vulnerability especially since 63.6 per cent of all office work is now internet based,” said Chris Moore, managing director, Trend Micro Middle East and MED.

“With a large majority of companies having been successfully attacked in the last 6 months, employee behaviors, lack of awareness, and inadequate protection is putting ME businesses at risk,” he pointed out.

Of the 800 people surveyed, 60 per cent were IT managers, 17 per cent were directors, 5 per cent were general managers, and another 8.2 per cent were system and network engineers. Account mangers accounted for 4.5 per cent and 3.9 per cent were managing directors, where as 0.7 per cent were chairpersons and CEOs.

According to Moore, all internet accounts are password protected, but criminals are looking to break passwords and steal data for gain.

The survey found that 22 per cent of responders had 6 to 10 internet accounts and 12.5 per cent have 11 to 15 accounts.

The alarming fact is that 54.89 per cent use only two to five passwords to manage all their internet accounts, raising fears that if one account is compromised, there is a chance all accounts could be easily compromised.

With spam peaking at more than 200 billion a day globally, the Web has evolved to become a primary threat-infection medium for modern-day attacks. The Middle East accounts for more than 3.56 per cent of global spam, of which the UAE has the highest spam count, followed closely by Saudi Arabia, the survey added.-TradeArabia News Service