CAIRO: As the latest technology floods the Egyptian market, cybercriminal activity follows suit. According to Euromonitor International, the number of internet users in Egypt in 2010 has reached 16.4 million or 20.8 percent of the population – up by 2 million from last year. Experts, however, say that awareness of online safety is not catching up with the increasing number of Egyptians online.
Are smart phones smart enough?
The most recent threat is smart phone malware. In its latest threat report Kaspersky Lab, which offers the second most popular antivirus software in Egypt, warns smart phone users of the danger of SMS Trojans. “These Trojans send SMS messages to premium pay numbers to get message parameters from the remote server. If a particular prefix is blocked, the cybercriminals do not have to use a different malicious program, but simply change the prefix on the server, explains Alexander Gostev, head of global research and analysis team of Kaspersky Lab and a specialist in mobile malware.
Such attacks cost millions to cell phone users around the world. Despite the great variety in mobile software platforms, no smart phone brand has remained safe. Last year, the mobile phone world saw the first worm virus attack the iPhone, the first spyware prey on Android phones, and the first malware threaten Symbian (mostly Nokia) smart phones.
One of the reasons for the spread of malware is that in the competition to attract more customers, mobile companies opened the mobile software platforms to end users to create their own software applications, without a proper checking mechanism to assure that all new applications are safe.
The increasing popularity of Wi-Fi networks and cheaper fares for internet access have also encouraged the creation of mobile malware. Easy internet access makes phones easy targets of cybercriminals and allows them to update the malware that has already infected a phone through a remote server.
Trending malware
The internet is the biggest source of threats to computer users as well. According to Kaspersky’s prognosis for 2010, Trojans are a decreasing threat because of antivirus software companies’ close-monitoring. In 2010, the risk of fake antivirus programs is also declining. Last year the Kido worm, which installs a fake antivirus, struck corporations and companies in Egypt.
“Kido was spreading so fast because companies were not applying some security software patches, says Wael Hosny, CEO of Value SYS, Egypt’s distributor of Kaspersky products.
Another major threat to Egyptian companies has been the increase in spam activity, says Hosny. According to Kaspersky spamming, along with other botnet activity, will continue to flourish this year, as traffic generation is one of the most successful money-making schemes of cybercriminals.
Windows 7, which is already available in Egypt, will also present opportunities for computer viruses. Hackers will be looking for new vulnerabilities in the system and ways to exploit them. That’s why it is highly recommended that users run Windows software updates regularly.
Yet another source of threat in Egypt has been the use of flash memory, says Hosny. “There has been a lot of internal infection [in companies’ computer networks] and the main source of it was flash memory, because it easily passes security, he says. Hosny explains that flash drives spread infection easily because malware attaches itself to the autorun application which gets activated the moment the drive is plugged in.
Kaspersky expects that this year there will be an increase in cyber attacks on file sharing websites and P2P networks. In 2009, a number of epidemics were spread by torrent portals.
Socialize Safely
Last year social network sites also suffered online attacks. Kaspersky specialists say that these will decrease this year. However, concerns around privacy and identity theft continue.
This year a website called PleaseRobMe.com stirred controversy, after its developers claimed that they can supply a list of empty houses by using information people posted in social networks or game websites.
Concerns over the unawareness of many internet users who post private information online motivated the Cyber Peace Initiative of the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement to start a number of different programs to raise awareness of safe web surfing.
Last month in cooperation with Microsoft, the Initiative conducted a survey among Egyptian internet users. The results show that 39 percent of the people interviewed spend more than 10 hours a week on the internet; 61 percent spend between 4 and 10 hours. Ninety-one percent of them say they get on social network sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Half of the respondents say that they are always careful about their “reputation when posting text, photos, and videos online; 23 percent say they are mostly careful. Cautious selection of what’s posted online does not mean the internet user is fully protected, however.
“Our survey shows that they know there’s something called privacy settings, but they don’t know how to use them, says Mohamed Fathy, Empowerment Programs Manager for the Cyber Peace Initiative (CPI).
For that reason, CPI in collaboration with the Egyptian government has created an Internet Safety Focus Group and a Parent Awareness Group that educate young people and their parents in safe internet use. Fathy says that the CPI work has affected about 300,000 young people.
