Companies in the Middle East need to do more to prevent hackers from breaching their security, an information technology (IT) security expert said yesterday.
Chief operating officer of e-Lite Technologies Aadesh Gawde said although there is increasing awareness among businesses about the potential risks involved, many decision-makers still do not know what to do about IT security.
"Once you know what to do, there are many measures that you can take to protect your company against such threats," he said.
"There are more and more companies that are becoming concerned about security threats and are wanting to learn more about what to do about them."
Mr Gawde said companies in the developing world, such as Middle Eastern countries, are more at risk than developed countries. He was speaking to the GDN at a seminar, entitled IT Security - Hacker's Perspective, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel yesterday.
The event, organised by e-Lite Technologies was attended by IT managers and business heads from banks, insurance companies, ministries and other major companies. Also speaking was e-Lite Technologies security head Joseph Kodiyil. Mr Gawde said although the word 'hacker' has negative connotations, not all of them are necessarily bad.
"There are two kinds of professional hackers, the white hat hackers and the black hat hackers. "The black hats try to infiltrate security systems while the white hat hackers defend against security threats.
"There is a third kind called script kiddies, who are amateurs. These hackers can sometimes be the most dangerous of all because they don't know what they are doing.
"The damage they can cause can sometimes be much worse than the damage caused by the black hats."
Mr Gawde said that the seminar was organised to give decision-makers an opportunity to learn more about IT security methods.
