JEDDAH: The Electronic Security Center (ESC) has detected foreign attacks targeting electronic networks of a number of government agencies and other vital sectors in the Kingdom, the Ministry of Interior said.

The electronic attacks exploited a loophole in the server of e-mails of these agencies but the investigators managed to identify the volume of such attacks and the rate of risks and informed the victims to take necessary preventive measures, the ministry said.

The ECS convened a workshop to discuss the results of the investigation into the attacks, measures to redress them and means to safeguard the electronic networks, it said.

The ESC said the government sector was a target of 39 percent of the total attacks, followed by media (23 percent), telecom and IT (15 percent) and the electricity and water sector(8 percent).

The attacker used many ways — through data collection of the targeted agency, breaking weak passwords of users, interfering in the data of the network users and their correspondence and using the network users to access other networks.

The attacker used encryption to hide his steps while he used VPN and TOR networks to hide his identity, the ESC said.