Cybercrime threatens 60% of global businesses

Increased usage provides more opportunity for cyber criminals. In the last month alone, Trend Micro has cleaned more than 300,000 affected computers in the Middle East, and 71,408 of those were in the UAE. The number of infected computers in the country is set to grow as spam peaks at 200 billion a day globally.

Chris Moore, Regional Managing Director, Trend Micro Middle East and North Africa, commented:

"UAE individuals and business are prone to malicious web attacks that could be financially damaging. Our road show is designed to highlight today's precarious internet security scenario. The time to protect is now; business can ill afford loss of productivity and data."

"Protection is vital and Trend Micro security solutions have been proven to be number one in spam prevention by UK based Westcoast Labs," added Moore.

The threat environment today has evolved from mass notoriety worm outbreaks in 2001 to covert dangers in 2008. Most internet users are not aware that their PCs have been compromised.

Any website from any organisation is at risk and the ones most targeted are those with compromised PCs. Customers need to know that when they link to a website, it is safe for them. That website's reputation can often be a key business differentiator.

In EMEA region 56.90% of threats are downloaded from the internet; 51.72% are dropped silently by malware; whereas a staggering 22.41% of machines are affected by removable physical drives. Trend Micro is seeing similar behavior in the Middle East.

"There have been some recent high profile security breaches in the region. Data-stealing malware is on the rise and infiltrates the most secure enterprises. Trend Micro is doing their share to educate regional organizations and individuals," concluded Moore.

Trend Micro will address IT and security professionals in the UAE (2 March), KSA(10 March) and Oman (16 March).