DarkMatter Group, the region’s first and only fully-integrated digital transformation, defence and cyber security consultancy and implementation firm today released its quarterly Cyber Security Report (“Report”) providing insights to UAE organisations regarding the threats and vulnerabilities they face in today’s landscape of digital transformation.
Q3 2018 highlights
- 93% of DarkMatter’s assessments found outdated software and 83% found unsupported software
- 70% of incident types discovered were caused by ‘attempted access’ or ‘misconfigurations’
- 45% of the top 20 most common vulnerabilities are classified as high or critical
- The UAE had potentially as many as 276,000 vulnerabilities identified across the nearly 800,000 Internet-facing hosts identified and assessed
- Best practice recommendations to counter these threats include: end-user awareness training, implementation of two-factor authentication, software upgrades and configuration management
The report also covers 9 most common threat vectors which DarkMatter identified. These 9 threat vectors were successfully used to elude many organisations’ cyber defenses. The insight DarkMatter gives here is essential to any executive who’s responsible for making digital and cyber decisions on behalf of his/her organisation.
“The findings highlighted in the Report provide stark reminders of the potential risks we face,” said Eddie Schwartz, EVP of Cyber Services at DarkMatter Group. “For example, attempted access and outdated software vulnerabilities were root causes in prior large-scale problems, such as the Yahoo breach and the WannaCry ransomware attacks. If no action is taken, similar unfortunate circumstances can become reality again for many organisations.”
The Cyber Security Report is the first of its kind in the region, bringing together in-house data and analytics from the company’s specialised services and platforms techniques as well as open source information specifically relevant to the UAE. DarkMatter Group’s aim is to raise awareness, give insights and offer recommendations to remediate the risks identified.
The Report draws insights in qualitative and quantitative proof-points that will help UAE organisations better understand the risks they face and take immediate steps to raise levels of cyber resilience.
According to the Report, the UAE-affiliated entities have nearly 800,000 publicly visible “hosts” on the Internet, computer systems that are typically servers providing different business functionalities, of which 276,000 vulnerabilities are directly related. Nearly half of the vulnerabilities identified are rated very high on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), a standard measure of the severity of security weaknesses in systems.
Furthermore, the Report investigated numerous incidents related to the above-mentioned vulnerabilities. These incidents were categorized in six incident types and ranked based on the aeCERT’s severity scale.
Eddie Schwartz added: “We identified several incidents ranked ‘critical’ on aeCERT’s scale, meaning great harm could be done to an organisation within the UAE if any of these attacks were executed successfully. The findings demonstrate that continuous cyber assessment and an ongoing commitment to improvement in security posture through cyber transformation is needed to ensure higher levels of cyber resilience.”
The Report concludes with a list of 7 practical recommendations for organisations to implement and improve their cyber defences:
- Software updates and patching
- System and Network Security hygiene
- Removal of non-standard software
- Implement advanced password management policies including two-factor authentication
- Scanning and monitoring of critical systems
- Conduct ongoing cyber security awareness training
- Conduct continuous cyber security assessments
These recommendations are detailed in the Report along with relevant details to support UAE organisations protect themselves against potential cyber risks.
DarkMatter Group recommends to all UAE organisations to take advantage of the upcoming cyber security event Hack-in-The-Box (HITB). In addition to the world-renowned capture-the-flag (CTF) competition, the HITB event boasts an extensive agenda with two days of technical training tracks in 11 different subjects and two days of multi-disciplined security conference lectures. Darkmatter Group will be joining HITB by conducting “Beyond Cyber”, a business track in parallel aimed at the leadership of these organisation.