According to cybersecurity company Trend Micro, malicious emails are the most frequent digital threat in Morocco.
Trend Micro announced that its software successfully blocked more than 16.2 million email threats in Morocco in the first six months of 2020.
The company’s subsidiary in Morocco recently shared the figure in a press conference to present its semi-annual security report.
The second-most frequent digital threat in Morocco, according to Trend Micro, is malicious mobile applications. The company’s software detected more than 4.5 million mobile applications that contain viruses from January through June.
Trend Micro also blocked access to nearly 600,000 malicious internet links in the same period.
The company’s antivirus and cybersecurity products are mainly business-oriented and widely used by Moroccan enterprises, as well as some public institutions.
According to Mahmoud Safwat, the general manager of Trend Micro Morocco, the number of digital threats in the country significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“IT managers should adapt their security strategies and sharpen them in order to respond to new arising threats,” Safwat recommended.
“We should start focusing more on the protection of remote endpoints, cloud systems, and user identification systems,” he added.
The IT expert also encouraged companies in Morocco to organize training sessions in order to raise their employees’ awareness about digital threats, especially as a large number of businesses have switched to remote work during the pandemic.
The increase in cybersecurity breaches in Morocco during COVID-19 is part of a global trend. According to Trend Micro’s figures, more than 27.8 billion digital threats were detected in the first half of 2020.
The figure represents a 36% increase compared to six months earlier, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of employees around the world to work from home.
