Amin Hasbiny, head of the global research and analysis team in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Kaspersky, which specializes in cybersecurity solutions and services, revealed that his company monitored and stopped about 13 million electronic attacks in Egypt during the first quarter of this year.
Hasbiny said in statements to Daily News Egypt on the sidelines of the activities of the eighth annual cybersecurity forum for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, organized by Kaspersky in the Kazakh city of Almaty, that an increase in the number of attacks targeting bank accounts and customer data of the banking sector in Egypt was monitored by 186% during the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2022.
Hasbiny noted that there is a rapid increase in the number of hacking attacks on the information system in the retail banking sector in Egypt, as well as an increase in phishing attacks via e-mail and SMS messages, amid a decline in advanced attacks related to the geopolitical situation.
Hasbiny pointed out that about 75,000 users in Egypt were exposed during the first quarter of this year to so-called phishing attacks, which is an attempt to defraud to enter malicious sites, and share personal and banking information, through malicious links on e-mail and SMS messages, indicating that between 17- 70% of the users who receive these fraudulent emails and messages click on the links and fall into the electronic trap.
The head of the global research and analysis team in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Kaspersky revealed that Egyptian government institutions were exposed, last year, to attacks by international hacker teams, with the aim of espionage and stealing customer data.
Hasbiny explained that the attacks were led by the global teams “AllRig” and “BlogX”, who specialize in advanced cyberattacks, preferring not to reveal the names of these institutions or the nature of their work. for the sensitivity of the matter.
Hasbiny mentioned that the attacks were dealt with in cooperation with Egyptian institutions, stressing that Kaspersky pays attention to monitoring and repelling information security attacks targeting local institutions in Egypt, especially espionage, and attempts to target and sabotage vital infrastructure institutions, especially government institutions.
