Cyber Security
Cybercriminals Double Down on Crypto Mining Attacks in the UAE

According to the Kaspersky Security Network findings released at GISEC 2022, cryptomining attacks in the UAE doubled in 2021 as compared to 2020. The country also witnessed an increase in financial malware attacks on Android by 42% in the same time period. The Middle East overall paints a similar picture, wherein cryptomining attacks increased by 7% and financial malware on Android increased by 6% in 2021 as compared to 2020.
On the bright side, all malware attacks in the country saw a decrease by 22%, and Ransomware attacks too dropped by 25% in 2021 as compared to 2020. While the plummeting numbers are a promising sign, experts are noticing a change in tactics used by cybercriminals targeting the UAE. More complex and targeted cyberattacks are being devised and launched, suggesting that cybercriminals are focusing more on quality than quantity.
Organizations in the UAE are rapidly adopting technologies like the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and automation to transform the way they operate and build an “always-on” business. Trends like remote and hybrid working are also gaining traction, which opens new doorways to vulnerabilities. Cryptominers steal computing power by exploiting all applications, servers, and platforms that can support their mining operations. Such attacks result in organizations experiencing IT infrastructure performance lags and high electricity bills, which are less noticeable than the usual red flags in cybersecurity such as disruption of services, financial losses or file encryption due to a ransomware attack.
This also calls for caution within the Critical Infrastructure (CI) sectors, which include, Oil & Gas, Utilities, Manufacturing, Water, Smart Cities, and Transportation. These are the key drivers of the UAE economy and rely on Industrial Control Systems and technologies like IoT for smooth functioning. During the second half of 2021, Kaspersky reported that almost 40% of all ICS computers were attacked by malicious software at least once. Cyberattacks on these systems can impact production operations, result in financial losses and affect people’s lives. The goal of such attacks can be both cyber sabotage and cyberespionage.
“Cybercriminals are now more interested in targeting the select organization, not many, to achieve what they want. It’s quality over quantity from here on” said Emad Haffar, Head of Technical Experts for META at Kaspersky. “They are choosing to use complex methods to design and launch highly-targeted attacks. To mitigate this situation, it is important to educate employees, who are the organisations’ first line of defense and help them understand how cyber threats are evolving, and their role in avoiding them.” He added.
Although these attacks are tricky to prevent, they can be detected and responded to at an early stage of the attack sequence. Today, large organizations across all industries and governments need strong detection, analysis, and hunting capabilities to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. Security Operation Center (SOC) plays a key role and must be equipped with actionable Threat Intelligence and the tools to enable it to identify threats and dynamically respond to them. For instance, Endpoint Detection and Response, which monitors, analyses, and responds to ongoing suspicious activities on endpoints, is a cornerstone in the SOC. In the event of a shortage of security experts, organizations can invest in Managed Detection and Response (MDR) which can strengthen their cybersecurity posture. The Kaspersky MDR platform delivers round-the-clock protection to networks from the growing volume of threats circumventing security barriers. Organizations also have access to Kaspersky experts and advanced intelligence to fend off complex attacks.
Cloud
SentinelOne Simplifies Secure Cloud Migrations on AWS

SentinelOne today announced its participation in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Workload Migration Program. This initiative supports AWS Partner Network (APN) members with SaaS offerings on AWS to accelerate and streamline workload migrations.
Through the program, SentinelOne will provide AWS customers with accelerated, secure cloud migration support, leveraging modern AI-powered CNAPP capabilities to ensure rapid and protected transitions. With access to AWS funding, technical resources, and go-to-market support, SentinelOne will help organizations reduce migration timelines and costs while maintaining robust security.
SentinelOne’s Singularity Cloud Security delivers real-time visibility and protection throughout the migration journey—whether from on-premises or another cloud—enabling a secure, seamless transition to AWS.
“Through our participation in the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program, SentinelOne is helping customers accelerate secure cloud migrations with end-to-end protection and visibility,” said Ric Smith, President of Product, Technology, and Operations at SentinelOne. “Whether moving from on-prem or another cloud to AWS, organizations can count on us to deliver the security they need throughout their journey—realizing the performance, speed, agility, and cost benefits of the cloud.”
Singularity Cloud Security combines agentless and agent-based protection for deep visibility, continuous posture management, and real-time threat detection across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. By collaborating with AWS and ecosystem partners, SentinelOne ensures seamless integration into migration projects, helping customers move faster, reduce risk, and scale confidently in the cloud.
Availability: SentinelOne’s solutions are available globally.
Cyber Security
Beyond Blocklists: How Behavioural Intent Analysis Can Safeguard Middle East Businesses from Rising AI-Driven Bot Threats

The Middle East is facing an unprecedented surge in AI-driven bot attacks, with malicious automation now outpacing traditional defenses. Mohammad Ismail, Vice President for EMEA at Cequence Security, warns that legacy tools like IP blocklists and rate limiting are no match for today’s sophisticated threats (more…)
Cyber Security
Sophos Boosts Firewall with New Protection and Incident Response Features

Sophos has announced a significant update to its Sophos Firewall software, introducing enhanced protection and incident response capabilities. This update notably includes Sophos NDR Essential, a new feature now available free of charge to all customers holding an XStream Protection license for Sophos Firewall.
This integration empowers Sophos Firewall with two dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) engines specifically designed to detect both malware communications and those utilizing algorithmically generated domain names. This advanced functionality, derived from the Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR) probe, aims to identify sophisticated malware communications even if they are previously unknown or not yet indexed. It serves as a powerful complement to the Active Threat Response capabilities already embedded within Sophos firewalls.

Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos
Addressing the technical demands of such advanced detection, Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos, explained the strategic approach, “NDR traffic analysis requires substantial processing power. That’s why we’ve adopted a new approach by deploying an NDR solution in Sophos Cloud to offload the heaviest tasks from the firewall.” This cloud-centric design ensures optimal performance without burdening the firewall’s on-device resources.
Beyond network detection, the update also brings significant improvements to connectivity and user authentication. Sophos Connect now integrates EntraID for Single Sign-On (SSO). This new feature for the VPN client, bundled with Sophos Firewall, is set to enhance both the security and user experience for SSL and IPsec VPN connections. The integration with EntraID (Azure AD) enables users to authenticate and leverage multi-factor authentication for both Sophos Connect and access to the user portal hosted by the firewall, streamlining secure access.
Further VPN-related enhancements include:
- Improved user interface and usability: Connection types have been renamed for greater clarity, with “site-to-site” now referred to as “policy-based” and tunnel interfaces as “route-based,” making configurations more intuitive.
- Dynamic validation of the IP address pool: For VPN connections (SSL VPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP), the system now dynamically validates the allocated IP address pool, helping to better resolve potential IP address conflicts.
- Strict profile enforcement: IPsec profiles now exclude default values to ensure algorithm synchronization, effectively eliminating potential fragmentation of session negotiation packets that could otherwise prevent site-to-site VPN tunnels from being established.
- Route-based VPN and SD-RED scalability: The system has been optimized to support up to 3,000 simultaneously established tunnels. Specifically, Sophos Firewall solutions can now manage up to 1,000 SD-RED site-to-site tunnels and connect up to 650 concurrent SD-RED devices.
Additional management improvements enhance administrative flexibility and search capabilities:
- More flexible DHCP Prefix Delegation (IPv6 DHCP-PD): The system now supports a broader range of prefixes, from /48 to /64, improving compatibility with various internet service providers.
- Router Advertisement (RA) and DHCPv6 server: These features are now enabled by default, simplifying IPv6 network setup.
- Resizable table columns: The web admin interface continues its adaptation for ultra-wide screens, with many configuration pages now allowing users to resize columns as needed for improved usability.
- Enhanced object search functionality: The search field within the SD-WAN routing configuration screen now supports more granular criteria, including route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses and domains. Similarly, local ACL rules now also support object name and value searches, extending to content-based searches for more precise results.
- Default configuration changes: To streamline initial setups, default firewall rules and rule groups previously created during new firewall deployments have been removed. The initial configuration now only includes the default network rule and MTA rules. Furthermore, the default firewall rule group and the default gateway probe for custom gateways are now set to “None” by default.
Sophos continues its commitment to cybersecurity through a “Secure by Design” approach, enhancing the intrinsic security of its firewalls. This methodology involves the containerization of specific features and rigorous integrity checks on critical operating system files using mathematical checksums. Any detected checksum mismatch triggers a potential compromise alert, enabling monitoring teams to proactively identify possible security incidents affecting the firewall OS integrity. This proactive detection allows incident response and development teams to react swiftly to critical security events.
This update is now available for manual download and deployment by customers with any Sophos Firewall equipped with a valid license.
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