Security risks in businesses are on the rise because many employees adopt ‘my way’ work lifestyles in which their devices, work and online behaviour mix with their personal lives virtually anywhere, said a report.

Cisco’s 2013 Annual Security Report (ASR) in Middle East and Africa also revealed that the highest concentration of online security threats come from legitimate destinations visited by mass audiences, such as major search engines, retail sites and social media outlets.
 
About 76 per cent of the population in the Middle East maintain five to nine passwords as opposed to only 29 per cent globally, it said.

It also revealed that about 42 per cent of respondents’ ‘online identity’ differs from their ‘offline identity,’ as compared to 39 per cent globally.

About 51 per cent of respondents in the region trust very few sites to keep their information private and secure, while global respondents were less trusting with 49 per cent distrustive most sites’ security.

A third of consumers in the region are concerned about the vulnerability of their online information and personal data as well as the possibility of identity theft, it said.

As a result, about 50 per cent of users prefer that their online browsing is kept strictly private and have high expectations that websites will keep their information confidential.

Android malware encounters grew 2,577 per cent this year over 2012, said the report.However, mobile malware represents only 0.5 per cent of total web malware encounters.

In 2012, the majority of spam was sent during the workweek, with Tuesday reported as the heaviest spam day of the year. The top spoofed brands involved prescription drugs and luxury watches like Rolex and Omega, said the report.

Spammers maximised the ROI of their efforts, targeting real-world events with specific and short-lived campaigns, such as Windows software, which coincided with the release of the Microsoft 8 consumer preview.

Fadi Moubarak, general manager, Cisco Lebanon, said: “Each year, the security threats and defenses evolve and change and the Cisco ASR is our expert research, highlighting global threat patterns and trends.”

“We live a blended work-personal life. The hackers know this, and the security threats that we encounter online such as embedded Web malware while visiting popular destinations like search engines, retailers, social media sites and smartphone/tablet apps no longer threaten only the individual; they threaten our organisations by default,” said Moubarak.

“This year’s ASR, coupled with our Middle East survey, highlights this and other trends while providing the hard data, and ideas, for how we should be approaching security today and in the future,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service