Cyberattacks on E-Retailers Increase up to 64 Percent in December

Middle East E-Commerce Projected to Hit USD 15 Billion by 2015, But Customers Need to Enhance Cybersecurity to Protect Online Identity

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – December 11, 2013 – While Middle East e-commerce is booming during the December gift season, customers need to better protect their online identity, according to an e-security expert.

The Middle East's e-commerce market is projected to grow from USD 9 billion in 2012 to USD 15 billion in 2015, according to a recent survey from PayPal. The UAE is a particularly robust market, with e-commerce slated to grow from USD 2.9 billion in 2012 to USD 5.1 billion in 2015.

However, security is the top concern for the Middle East's 30 million online customers, per PayPal, and is particularly important in December, when e-retailers can see a 55 percent jump in shopping volume along with a 64 percent rise in cyberattacks, according to a survey by RSA Security and The Ponemon Institute.

“While December is one of the most popular seasons to buy gifts for friends and family online, customers in MENA need to be aware of cybersecurity risks that could lead to stolen identity and malware attacks,” said James Ryan, Chief Privacy Officer, AnchorFree.

“In order to protect themselves, customers should install security software and patches, secure their home or public Wi-Fi network, shop only on trusted shopping websites, use strong passwords, and pay by credit card or trusted online payment services like PayPal.”

Worldwide, cybercrime has rocketed to one of the top four economic crimes, with 23 percent of companies saying they had suffered one more cybercrime incidents in the past 12 months, according to the Global Economic Crime Survey from PwC.

One of the most effective ways of thwarting cyberattacks is Hotspot Shield by AnchorFree, which encrypts web pages via a private and secure tunnel, and especially protects Wi-Fi networks.

Customers can download Hotspot Shield for free on their computers and mobile devices. The latter is  especially important as Middle East mobile commerce is projected to grow from 10 percent of total e-commerce in 2012 to 20 percent in 2015, according to PayPal.

Hotspot Shield has encrypted more than 15 billion page views, blocked more than 630 million pieces of malware, and saved mobile users more than 21 million megabytes of data, according to AnchorFree. In MENA, there have been more than 4 million total installations of Hotspot Shield on mobile devices.

Hotspot Shield is available for PC, Mac, iOS and Android. For more details, visit http://tinyurl.com/8d8tkqt.