3Com has extended its Middle East growth and development strategy with the appointment of Mindware as a distributor for the region. Part of the MDS Group, Mindware has emerged as a leading distributor of technology solutions in the region.
“We want to continue to build our presence in the market, while providing consistently high levels of service and networking expertise to our partners and customers. Mindware has demonstrated that they have strong local business knowledge as well as a proven track record in distributing leading-edge technology products to businesses in the region,” said Wael Fakharany, GM for 3Com in the Middle East.
Under the terms of the new partnership, Mindware will join 3Com’s distributor network to help build the market for its advanced range of LAN, WAN, voice, security and wireless solutions. Mindware will also provide pre-sales support, technical advice and ongoing services for authorized 3Com resellers in the Middle East.
HP Notes Milestones in Local PC Assembly
HP held a press conference to discuss the achievements the company has enjoyed as a result of one year of successful operations at its PC assembly plant in Saudi Arabia. Having recently been awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification, desktops produced at HP’s assembly plant, audited by QMI, have started already shipping to the education sector and small and medium businesses.
Christoph Schell, in his new role as ISE (International Sales Europe) Solutions Partner Organization manager as well as GM, Personal Systems Group of HP Middle East attested, “After a year of operation, as the only multinational PC assembly plant in the Arab world, HP’s operations in the Kingdom have allowed customers, including the Saudi Ministry of Education, access to top-notch technologies, especially catered to the needs of the local market. Also as part of our focus on the small and medium-sized business (SMB) segment, our partner in Saudi Arabia, Nahil Computers, has already exported 7,000 units of the desktops dx2000 to six countries across the Arab world including Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan.”
“Made in the Kingdom desktops will be showcased at GITEX Dubai and we are confident that our leadership in the desktop market in the region will attract more contracts from the growing SMB market,” Schell added.
ME Leading Source of Internet Threats Per Capita
Symantec has released its newest Internet Security Threat Report. The sixth bi-annual report provides analysis and discussion of trends in Internet attacks, vulnerabilities and malicious code activity for the period of Jan. 1-June 30, 2004.
The report clearly shows that for the third period, the Middle East leads the world as the source of Internet threats per capita. The USA is once again the source of the most attacks by volume, with 37 percent of the global attacks originating from their shores. However, when the attack per capita rates are examined, Israel ranks third globally, followed by Egypt at sixth, Turkey seventh, Kuwait 15th and Oman 17th.
“There are a number of criteria which could factor in these findings, such as the 600 percent rise in bot networks globally which is a key area for discussion in this report,” commented Kevin Isaac, regional director, Symantec Middle East & Africa. “As Information and Communication Technology policies in the Middle East come to maturity, many countries have adopted ADSL and abandoned monopolistic practices in the telecom sector, bringing cheaper and faster Internet connectivity to homes and offices across the region. This is undoubtedly a benefit, but if these new users are not aware of the security risks that the Internet can pose then they can become the targets of criminals looking to set up bot networks.”
Isaac explained that a bot network is a collection of machines invisibly infected by Trojans, which are remotely controlled to issue viruses or Internet threats into the wild. Simple measures can clear Trojans from a user’s machine, such as a free virus scan available on the Internet or a comprehensive firewall and anti-virus solution, banishing the Trojan and therefore disabling the criminals from remotely controlling the computer.
“The increasing penetration of the Internet has also triggered the interest of youths across the region,” Isaac added. “Often, markets achieving greater Internet penetration with faster connectivity see a noticeable increase in the number of threats appearing from their country. This can be attributed to the curiosity of teenagers in computer clubs or schools as well as purposeful attacks. Exploring the potential of the Internet is a part of growing up, testing the possibilities of IT, sometimes inadvertently releasing threats in to the wild as teens learn how to build, and therefore break, code. Education is key to ensuring that these youths take the right path toward building the Internet in our countries.”
