By Layan Damanhouri
Saudi Gazette
An estimated EUR 1.35 million in just 9 weeks were prevented from being stolen by cyber criminals after several organizations collaborated to create the No More Ransom project this year.
“It’s the first time where the private sector, law enforcement, and governments collaborate to fight ransomware together,” IntelSecurity’s Europe, Middle East and Africa CTO Raj Samani told Saudi Gazette.
IntelSecurity joined forces with Dutch National Police, Europol, Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab as well as law enforcement agencies from 13 countries to help victims of ransomware.
Ransomware is a growing issue where one new threat arises every 6 seconds. Samani says, “Cyber criminals are making good money. Organized criminals are capable of stealing millions of dollars from companies and banks all across the world.”
He adds, “It’s a war that’s going to continue in the future. This is the evolution of crime. People don’t rob banks with guns anymore. They rob it with USB sticks and malware.”
Criminals no longer need to physically steal bags of money. In addition, the type of threat will be different than the previous one and criminals will have different targets, mainly consumers.
Most countries in the No Ransomware Program are European countries and more countries are expected to join in the coming months.
On Saudi Arabia, Samani says: “Saudi Arabia is certainly targeted but not necessarily higher than other countries. However, Saudi Arabia is an economy dependent on physical resources. There’s a dependency on systems that manage and protect these environments. Saudi Arabia is dependent on the security both digitally and physically of their assets.”
Asked about the awareness of business leaders to adopt security and IT strategies, Samani says awareness is growing. “We’re briefing major governments, leaders. It’s raised its profile from what it was two years ago and it has to.”
He adds, “Technology is integral to every organization across the world. Ensuring that individuals, consumers, governments, can trust those systems is the most important element. You need to make sure you have the right level of protection. Consequences can lead to a company losing up to hundreds of thousands of customers.”
