More than a third of attempted hacks in Saudi Arabia over the past year targeted government websites, local media have reported.
Saudi Gazette said figures from the National Electronic Security Center showed that 39 percent of hacking attempts from outside the kingdom targeted the websites of various government agencies.
Citing Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Saudi Gazette quoted Abbad Al Abbad, the centre’s strategy director, as saying: “Data for the past one year showed the most targeted websites by hackers abroad belonged to the public sector.
“[Hackers] have accessed different websites through email proxies. The kingdom has detected these breaches and alerted the affected sectors and their directorates.”
The second most targeted sector by foreign hackers is media, which accounted for around 23 percent of hack attempts, followed by telecoms and information technology (I.T.) at 15 percent and utilities at 8 percent, it was reported.
Government departments are advised to take all possible precautionary measures, Al Abbad said.
“A hacker first gathers information on the targeted website and its directorate and then works on decoding passwords,” he explained.
“The weakest passwords are the easiest to decode. He or she then uploads fishing files to the targeted website.
“The hacker is thus able to gather important information on all users and use this information for his or her own benefit.”
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