BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12. In 2022, Kaspersky blocked about a million clicks on phishing sites in Azerbaijan, Country Representative of Kaspersky Mushvig Mammadov said in an interview with Trend.
According to Mammadov, the majority, or 60 percent of all attacks were on home users, and 40 percent – on corporate.
"Kaspersky's cybersecurity solutions cover both the corporate segment and home users. According to our surveys, in 2022, people noted an increase in cyber attacks in the form of online fraud. The attackers used fairly traditional methods of social engineering to obtain payment data and other personal information. Also, users very often encountered scammers on social networks and messengers. There are a lot of such cases, and we are working to raise awareness of the population. I would like to note that in general," he said.
He also said companies in Azerbaijan have begun to pay more attention to cybersecurity and are actively implementing advanced solutions to protect their business and prevent cyber risks.
According to Mammadov, the most vulnerable categories of users for cybercriminals are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as elderly people.
"The older generation is the least informed about the basic rules of cyber hygiene. As practice shows, this category of people is more trusting: they tend to transfer their payment card data, SMS codes, and security codes to third parties without suspicion. All this helps attackers to deceive their victims and get their financial means. In the corporate sector, the SMEs are most exposed to risks. First of all, because they have a limited or no budget for integrating modern information technology solutions," he said.
According to him, attackers are often primarily interested in corporations that operate with large amounts of money. Knowing this, large organizations implement advanced solutions to prevent cyber attacks, and data loss and preserve their and customers' reputations. However, even large companies that allocate impressive amounts of funding for digital protection are subject to cyber risks.
Moreover, the expert does not recommend holders of salary and pension cards use them as a means of online payments.
"During the pandemic, Azerbaijani residents began to turn to digital payments much more often. Many users who used bank cards for the first time were not sufficiently prepared for such digitalization, which is why they faced problems, including online fraud with the subsequent theft of confidential information, personal data and funds. To conduct safe financial transactions, it is worth following the basic recommendations," the company's representative said.
According to the expert, in order to minimize the risks from online transactions, it is better to use a separate bank card for online payments - physical or virtual. Before paying, it is necessary to make sure that there is a security solution on the device from which the transaction is made and make sure that the payment system is reliable. Special attention should be paid to not transferring money when the device is connected to a public Wi-Fi network.
In addition, the representative of Kaspersky underlined that in 2023 it is expected to maintain the relevance and global growth of cyber attacks.
"Unfortunately, one of the results of the rapid penetration of the Internet, the development of digital solutions and online payments is the increase in cyber-attacks and cases of Internet fraud. In the Azerbaijani market, our company is ready to provide support and assistance in preventing cyber threats to both large companies and SMEs in any situation. I would like to note that Kaspersky offers security solutions for various types of attacks, and based on the specifics of the industry and business needs, we are ready to implement solutions necessary for a specific organization," Mammadov said.
The expert also mentioned that it is especially important for Kaspersky's partners that the company adheres to the policy of information openness: any partner can check the source code of products in the Transparency Centers that operate in Europe, Asia, America, and in 2023 will appear in the Netherlands, Italy and Israel.
He also said that Azerbaijani companies are working on the implementation of solutions for detecting and isolating attacks (Endpoint Detection and Response) in order to be able to quickly stop a cyber attack.
"Today Kaspersky solutions detect about 400,000 malicious files every day. At the same time, the process of countering these attacks has become more complicated – conventional solutions to protect desktops from modern malware cannot be protected. Knowing this, we in Azerbaijan have expanded our product line and offer solutions that can cope with more sophisticated attacks. For example, Kaspersky solutions for detecting and isolating cyber threats," Mammadov said.
He also added that Kasperksy is implementing these tools in Azerbaijani companies will help to stop attacks quickly and cooperate with banks not only in the field of protecting their infrastructure but also in protecting against fraudsters' actions aimed at hacking user accounts, mobile and online banking.
The Baku office of Kaspersky began its work in early 2015. Kaspersky is an international company specializing in the development of protection systems against computer viruses, spam, hacker attacks, and other cyber threats. The company operates in almost all countries of the world.
