The Kingdom ranked second among Middle East countries for being most exposed to cyber and financial attacks in 2013, local media said quoting a report by Kaspersky Lab, a Russian-based cyber financial attacks specialist firm.

The United Arab Emirates came first, with a 38-percent rate of exposure to cyber attacks, followed by the Kingdom, which has a 29-percent rate.

Egypt came third, at 10 percent, followed by Qatar, at more than 9.5 percent and Kuwait, at just over six percent. Oman, meanwhile, ranked sixth, according to the report.

Less than one percent of financial attacks in 2013 targeted the region, which were mostly launched in a bid to obtain usernames, passwords and credit card details.

Attackers targeted e-mails potentially sent by official government bodies, such as banks, to get these details, the report said.




Social media outlets registered a 32-percent rate of cyber attacks, e-mails 30 percent, banks 12 percent, blogs eight percent, e-commerce websites seven percent and games three percent, the report said.

The US came ranked first globally in the number of cyber attacks, with a 30-percent rate, followed by Russia, at 11 percent, Germany at 9.3 percent, Japan at 6.2 percent, Britain at 5.2 percent, India and France at around four percent, Switzerland at 2.6 percent and Italy and Brazil at just under two percent, the report said.