Bank accounts in the UAE among most targeted by global cybercriminals

According to a study conducted by Kaspersky, 5.68 million online attempts to steal money from bank accounts were registered worldwide between July and September 2015. Among the countries included in the research, the UAE stood in the ninth place, with 2.54% of its online account holders attacked by banking Trojans -- viruses that can steal banking or payment details and eventually empty people’s savings.

Austria topped the list, with 4.98% of users in the country attacked by cybercriminals, followed by Singapore (4.23%), Turkey (3.04%), Namibia (2.91%) and New Zealand (2.86%) in the fifth place. Rounding up the top ten list are Hong Kong (2.81%), Australia (2.78%), Lebanon (2.6%), UAE (2.54%) and Switzerland (2.46%).

During the third quarter of 2015, Kaspersky Lab’s solutions were able to block almost 626,000 attempts to launch malware capable of stealing money via access to users’ online banking. The number is 17.2% lower than Q2 2015, but it is a 5.7% increase since Q3 2014.