Oman has reportedly warded off over 880 million cyber-attacks on government networks in 2017, three times more than 2016 when the country recorded 279 million such attacks.
While 1.41 million attacks specifically targeting government websites were successfully prevented in 2017, which came down from 1.75mn in 2016, according to Information Technology Authority’s (ITA) Annual Report 2017.
According to the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2017, Oman is among the top five most cybersecure countries in the world and first in the Arab world.
Oman’s ITA has two main divisions focus on cybersecurity: Information Security Division (ISD), which is responsible for the security of government entities, and the Oman Computer Emergency Readiness Team (OCERT), which is responsible for the security of cyberspace in Oman and public awareness in the field.
ISD provides networks and portals protection, secure Internet access, end-point security, information security operations, security assessment and IT security consultancies.
The division has reportedly rendered 880,843,349 cyberattacks useless against government networks while it thwarted 1,411,043 cyberattacks against government websites.
ITA further discovered 1,859 spyware (6,416 in 2016) and 11,370 (7,824 in 2016) viruses and malware, with 2,459 real cybersecurity incidents reported by government and public successfully handled.
Meanwhile, OCERT, which addresses the issues of cyber threats and risks and the provision of a secured cyber environment in using eServices and protection of critical national information infrastructure, discovered and handled 44,340 (16,118 in 2016) attacks targeting Oman’s cyberspace.
