Egypt continues to face a growing threat from cyber-attacks with malware detections in Q1 of 2018 reaching 253,995, the second highest figure in the North African region, with Tunisia topping the list.
According to a newly-released report by Trend Micro, the country accounted for 0.23 percent of global ransomware threats, or 3.97 million, in the same period.
A key driver of the national economy according to industry reports is Egypt’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector which has been consistently leading the local sectors in terms of development in the past years, with an average growth rate of 12.5 percent. Noting the important contribution of ICT to Egypt’s GDP, national efforts to strengthen security in cyberspace become even more imperative, according to Noura Hassan, Managing Director, Trend Micro North Africa and Levant.
A modern and integrated security system should be incorporated when mapping Egypt’s transformation into a digital economy,” Hassan added.
The threat from malware in the country was at its highest in the first month of the year when 87,613 infected files were detected by Trend Micro.
The study also revealed that online banking malwares for Q1 of 2018 stood at 231, while macro malware total was 23 in the same period. It further pointed out that Egypt has the second largest number of ransomware threats in the North African region, with Tunisia topping the list as it accounted for 0.36 percent of the global ransomware threats. Jordan landed in third spot with 0.14 percent of global threats detected in the country.
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