Jordan Detects, Thwarts Almost 900 Cyberattacks in 2021: Minister

Jordan’s Media Affairs Minister Faisal Shboul said Sunday in a press conference with Ahmad Melhem, president of the National Cyber Security Center, that the center detected and thwarted 897 cyberattacks against the country in 2021, its first year of operations. He admitted there were other cyberattacks that were not detected by the authorities. Over the past six months, the center has detected attacks from more than 40 countries, based on the attacker’s IP address. Several state institutions, websites, email servers, and individuals were targeted, including the Royal Hashemite Court. Melhem said 34% of the attacks targeted network users, 27% were state-sponsored attacks, 26% were online crimes, and 13% came from extremist organizations and terrorist groups. He said 33% of the attacks were for the purpose of disrupting the network, 23% were to steal information and data, 21% for cyberspying, 14% to use infrastructure to initiate attacks on other entities, and 4% were for the purpose of spying for political reasons.