Despite the lax attitudes towards cybersecurity in Morocco, many report being worried about becoming victims of cyber crime.
Agadir – Morocco is ranked among the top ten countries for the highest volume of malware attacks according to a study by cybersecurity company Kaspersky.
According to the study, conducted in partnership with the Immersion Study Office, the majority of Moroccans are indifferent about cybersecurity. Kaspersky found that most Moroccans are not educated about the risks of poor cybersecurity, and in fact do not take the steps necessary to secure their personal data.
Only 8% of people questioned reported that they use any kind of antivirus software. 18% indicated that they do not update their mobile phones, and at least three out of four internet users have one password across different applications and devices.
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Despite the lax attitudes towards cybersecurity in Morocco, only 33% of respondents trust their mobile devices to store confidential data. A majority, 76%, indicated that they are afraid of their personal photos or video clips being stolen and 39% of those surveyed are afraid of being spied on through the camera.
This comes at a time when Morocco is experiencing an uptick in e-commerce and general digitization of its infrastructure. The survey also showed that 43% of those surveyed use the internet for online banking and e-commerce.
Another study conducted by Kaspersky detected a total of 13.4 million cyber attacks between April and June 2020 in Morocco. According to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, malicious emails are the most frequent digital threat in Morocco. The increase of cybersecurity breaches during COVID-19 is part of a global trend.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed Morocco to make substantial progress in the digital sector, accelerating the digitization of several economic, social, and administrative services.
