Hacking for Freedom – hacktivists rule against Bahrain Regime supporters

Bahraini firms facing cyber attack threats
22 July, 2012 – Bahrain News

Bahraini businesses, which receive an average of 2,000 to 3,000 cyber threats per month, are unprepared in the event of a major IT security assault, according to experts in the kingdom.

National carrier Gulf Air, which saw disruptions to its corporate website as well as had its Facebook page hacked, told our sister publication the Gulf Daily News (GDN) that cyber crime is a serious threat to the aviation industry and large Bahraini companies, in particular.

“As a high-profile company and the kingdom’s national carrier, Gulf Air, like other large Bahraini companies, is a target and we take cyber crime extremely seriously,” said IT director Jassim Haji.

“The opportunity for large gains is fuelling the criminal underground, while ‘hacktivists’ looking to advance their agendas see penetrating networks as a great way to draw attention to their cause,” he added.

The airline has since stepped up security systems by building a disaster recovery centre located remotely from its headquarters, where all data is transferred and stored in real time.

Small and medium enterprises, however, are not so lucky.

“Small businesses are at great loss,” said Al Hilal Group networks specialist Sayed Alaa Al Marzooq Sayed.

“Some medium-sized companies have disaster recovery systems in order to back up data. It takes one or two days to restore the system. It costs a lot of time when all systems crash,” he said. “If you have no backup, you won’t be able to access information.”

Bahrain’s banking sector is also on high alert against any potential threat to its systems.

“We receive almost 2,000 to 3,000 threats per month,” said Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance senior IT support engineer Mohammed Abdulkareem.

“We carry security auditing of our system and we monitor them regularly besides providing for anti-virus protection. We advise our users not to view certain emails or open certain attachments,” he added.

Network security experts say most Bahrain-based users still fall for financial frauds on the Internet. “Previously, hackers would extract credit card details in one go. Now, they send you an email which sounds personal and proposes to transfer a certain amount of money,” Abdulkareem said.

He advised adopting a cautious approach towards using social networking websites as users usually from the opposite sex often extract vital financial and personal information.

“People don’t target credit cards now but go directly for bank statements. Many people in Bahrain have lost thousands of dinars,” he said. He also warned of the dangers of backdoor attacks from using shared networks.

“Free WiFi in cafŽs sometimes don’t belong to the cafŽ but to some other user,” Abdulkareem said. “If you access bank websites from the Internet, a packet will be copied and your information will be gleaned. Bahrain is not at all prepared. Only 20 per cent of companies are prepared.”

Gulf Air, meanwhile, said the government was stepping up its efforts to protect Bahrain’s businesses against cyber security lapses.

“There is an Internet crimes division at the Interior Ministry with whom we work very closely to ensure that all possible precautions are taken to safeguard Gulf Air’s corporate assets and reputation,” said Haji.

Security experts say the recent spate of attacks against Bahraini companies is because the country has come under the radar of foreign ‘hacktivist’ groups.

“People will always go where there’s the lowest risk,” forensics expert Tony Tesar said. “Developing countries and new markets, where defence capabilities are not established, always present opportunities.”

The cost of maintaining a team to constantly protect systems is much more than the damage caused by the threat, said Tesar who is security and risk management director at security firm RTI Limited.

“Bahrain has come under the radar of many hacktivist groups who have claimed responsibility for attacks carried out against high-profile institutions.”

Bahrain has been placed in the spotlight because of the unrest, Tesar added. “I think Bahrain is aware of the threat from cyber attacks and a lot of companies are putting defences in place, so they are employing companies half way across the world to do it for them.” …source