While the Director General of the Central Agency for Information Technology, Dr. Ammar Al-Husseini, said that the cyber risks and challenges facing Kuwait will not stop in light of the continuous technological development. The Ministry of Interior announced that it had received 4,000 complaints of cybercrime during the current year.
During the Fourth Kuwait Conference on Combating Cybercrime, which is organized by the agency, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, Al-Husseini stated that the cooperation between the various government agencies, expecting further development in confronting cyber threats, in light of the establishment of the National Center for Cyber Security is underway.
He added that cybercrimes aim to harm the electronic infrastructure of many countries, by disrupting digital systems or stealing data of public and private institutions.
He explained that cybercrime has become one of the factors in the depletion of resources in the world, through the exposure of institutions to cybercrimes and breaches, which leads to damage and exposure to great losses, as a result of data corruption and destruction, or theft of intellectual property and personal data and financial embezzlement.
He mentioned that crimes related to “social engineering” and the misuse of social media, innocent people fell victim to it, either due to ignorance or lack of awareness of the dangers and dimensions of cybercrime on society and individuals, noting that some foreign statistics indicate that only about 10 percent of those who fall victim Cybercrime, they record or report these incidents.
Ammar Al-Sarraf, Lieutenant Colonel at the Ministry of Interior, said that there has been a significant increase in electronic crimes received by the administration during the current year, as the total number of complaints registered with the administration has reached about 4,000 complaints, varying in their classification among crimes of “extortion, fraud, and defamation of dignity.” The necessary legal measures have been taken.
He warned against cyberattacks and falling into fraud, extortion and data theft attacks, indicating the importance of raising awareness of cyber crimes.
