AnchorFree reports 995% increase in active mobile users

The findings are indicative of MENA's voracious appetite for all things mobile, which is partly down to having one of the most youthful and tech-savvy populations on the planet.

Nearly one in five people in the region are aged between 15 and 24.

Last year's Our Mobile Planet survey by Google found that the UAE had the world's highest smartphone penetration rate at 62%, followed closely by Saudi Arabia with 60%. The figure stood at a healthy 50% in both Egypt and Jordan.

AnchorFree's figures also demonstrate strong Hotspot Shield growth on desktop devices, with active MENA users growing 30% during the past twelve months.

"MENA is a massive growth opportunity for AnchorFree, as users are really starting to understand the risks of unsecure browsing," said David Gorodyansky, CEO, AnchorFree. "Anti-virus software alone just isn't cutting it when it comes to effectively repelling malware threats and identity theft, and that is why our active user base is expanding so rapidly - particularly in the mobility space," he added.

"A VPN can be an extremely powerful tool, enabling users to access and view individual web pages or application content on a fully protected and encrypted network, rather than the public internet," further added Gorodyansky.

"Encrypting the entire browsing session prevents hackers from capturing passwords or other sensitive personal information over suspect WiFi connections," he concluded.

Beyond its robust safety and privacy credentials, Gorodyansky believes that much of AnchorFree's popularity stems from an ability to compress mobile data. Hotspot Shield enables users to reduce their bandwidth by up to 50%, which saved global users 60 million MB in 2012 alone.

Hotspot Shield is now well established as the world's most popular VPN. In 2012, the number of people actively using Hotspot Shield every month doubled from 4.5 to 10 million, resulting in the protection of 18.6 billion internet pages. Available for PC, Mac, iOS and Android platforms, Hotspot Shield has been downloaded by over 100 million people in 190 countries to date.