SECURITY NEWS
DDoS attacks target Middle East government , telecom , aviation , oil and gas finds Help AG
Help AG , an e & enterprise company and the Middle East ’ s trusted security advisor , has revealed digital threats facing organisations in the region . The findings have been derived from Help AG ’ s research and their experience working with more than 500 of the region ’ s largest enterprises and government organisations to detect and respond to threats throughout 2023 .
There was a 42 % jump in Distributed Denial-of-Service , DDoS attacks in 2023 , with Help AG recording 213,434 attacks of this nature . The longest DDoS attack lasted for over 5 days , while the largest attack by bandwidth logged in at a record-breaking rate of 461.5 Gigabits per second , Gbps .
40 % of DDoS attacks targeted the Government sector in 2023 , followed by 29 % for the Telecoms sector , 9 % for Aviation , and 5 % for Oil & Gas . The Financial and Telecom sector experienced the largest DDoS attacks by volume , logging in at 461.5 Gbps and 302.2 Gbps , respectively .
Of nearly 30,000 critical risk alerts identified by Help AG in 2023 , the dominant threat categories were found to be Credential Theft , 49 % and Brand Abuse , 39 %, while Data Leakage and Phishing represented 10 % and 1.5 % of use cases , respectively .
Cyberthreats majorly impacted the Education , 36 %, Aviation , 29 %, and
Nicolai Solling , CTO Help AG
Stephan Berner , CEO Help AG
Healthcare sectors , 15 %, which represented a combined 80 % of targeted organisations in the GCC .
Organisations in the Government , 8 %, Investment , 7 %, and Banking and Finance , 4 % sectors followed , as transactions in these sectors became increasingly digitised .
In 2023 , cyber defence investments doubled amid the continuing digital transformation surge . Investments spanned preventative , detective , responsive , and predictive controls . Multi-factor authentication implementations rose by 16 %, while patch management processes saw a 13 % increase , highlighting critical efforts to thwart threat actors and maintain system integrity .
Implementation of web application firewalls increased by 9 %, and identity access management also grew by 9 %, indicating a strengthening of web and identity security frameworks .
Privileged access management saw a 10 % increase , enhancing security for critical server access , and dedicated data activity monitoring rose by 15 %, reflecting growing concerns over data privacy and protection .
Cybersecurity Estate Consolidation : 100 +% growth in technology and vendor relationships consolidation .
Managed Cyber Defence : Investment skyrockets due to the increasing complexity of the digital threat landscape .
Cybersecurity Advisory : 2x growth in investments due to the growing regulatory compliance requirements .
DDoS Protection : Complementing classic DDoS protection with adaptive solutions .
Proofpoint available in AWS Marketplace
Proofpoint announced availability of its human-centric security solutions in the AWS Marketplace . Proofpoint ’ s Human-Centric Security platforms are currently available on the AWS Marketplace in all regions where Proofpoint conducts business .
Blake Sallé , Chief Revenue Officer , Proofpoint
By joining the AWS Marketplace , customers benefit from a quick and agile procurement process while maximizing their investment with AWS-spend commitment retirement and consolidated billing . Channel partners can strengthen their business opportunities , close deals 50 % faster , and increase their return on investment by more than 200 %.
“ AWS Marketplace has become the cloud marketplace of choice for CIOs thanks to the unparalleled security , governance and procurement benefits it offers organizations ,” said Blake Sallé , Chief Revenue Officer at Proofpoint . •
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