Regional businesses urged to be aware of virus threats, but to 'Beware of the Hype'

However, businesses in the Middle East must strike a balance between taking appropriate steps to prevent their systems being compromised, and avoiding falling for the concurrent increase in "hype" and scaremongering that is being seen in the market, he cautioned.

Raimund Genes, president of European Operations, Trend Micro, a globally-recognised authority on IT security, was in Dubai visiting the region as part of a program of activity aimed at both raising awareness of the extent of threats posed by viruses and malicious code, and debunking some of the hype surrounding the problem.

"There's no doubt that virus activity is on the increase in the Middle East, primarily because of the region's success in pushing forward e-government and e-commerce projects, encouraging internet penetration, and adopting leading-edge technology," said Genes. "Some of the factors that have under-written this success, such as high bandwidth and the early adoption of new systems, also make it easier for viruses to proliferate unless there is sufficient education on the part of end-users."

Major virus attacks in 2003 were a mix of worms targeted at known vulnerabilities and traditional mass-mailing viruses; in terms of new developments, network worms are quickly becoming a more significant threat to organizations.

In a recent survey of North American firms by research group IDC, entitled "Worldwide Antivirus 2004-2008 Forecast and 2004 Competitive Vendor Shares", 31% of respondents indicated viruses, Trojans and malicious code as the single greatest threat, and another 10% indicated network worms as the greatest threat. Genes notes that customer feedback in the Middle East reflects a similar pattern.

Reinforcing the prevalence of these new threats, Trend Micro reported that it has encountered a strain of virus originating from within the Middle East for the first time in 2004.

However, Genes also noted that the flip-side of this growth in virus activity is a growth in hype and scare stories around potential threats, which can confuse the issue for many businesses and end users.

"There is a difference between educating the market, and creating a scare for the sake of headlines and easy publicity. It's important that security companies and anti-virus software developers take a responsible approach to the issue of business security, and advise companies about existent threats rather than trying to hype the 'next big threat'," commented Genes.

Trend Micro has been identified as the market revenue leader in the Internet gateway, mail server, and file server antivirus markets, based on the recently-issued market analysis by IDC. This marks the fifth consecutive year that Trend Micro has led the gateway market.

"As a market leader, Trend Micro sees its role as providing responsible, realistic advice and guidance for companies about the extent of the virus threat. With my visit to the region, we're hoping to bring this message directly to our Middle East-based customers," concluded Genes.