The number of cyber attacks against websites in the UAE during the first four months of 2018 totalled 155, almost half the number seen in the same period last year.

The decrease from January to April compared to 297 attacks during the year-earlier period, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday.

It said the decrease reflects the significant success of the National IT Emergency Response Team of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in deterring hacking attempts.

According to the TRA’s statistics, 45 cyber attacks involved fraud and phishing and a further 26 cyber attacks aimed to leak information. The other attacks involved defamation and other purposes.

The authority’s statistics also showed that 85 attacks had a medium impact, 35 had a low impact, and 35 attacks had a major impact, without giving further details.

The TRA said it is working to raise awareness on how to counter malicious programmes by holding seminars and awareness programmes for the entire community.

It also recently launched the campaign They Do Not Deceive You, as part of its duty to raise community awareness.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)