GCC companies handling financial instruments are likely to continue to be targets for organised cybercrime, says Terry Erdle, executive vice president of certifications and learning at US-headquartered IT trade association CompTIA.

“Financial instruments will continue to be really high targets. You could for instance have someone who wants to disrupt a commodity channel like oil and change the markets. Imagine if you’re trading oil and then attack two or three systems pumping millions of barrels of oil a day. I suspect these kinds of attacks do happen in the world, though perhaps not often,” says Erdle.

“Cyber security attacks on GCC companies have become more organised. We’ve gone from hacking by a disgruntled employee or a kid in a corner trying to shut someone’s lights down to organised attacks where there’s money at stake,” he adds.

Over the past few years there have been several successful, high profile attacks in the region. In mid-2010, Iran’s nuclear plans were damaged after its reactor was hit by the Stuxnet worm, enabling the attackers to take over some of the plants process controls, while in 2012 both Saudi Aramco and RasGas were hit by hackers.

Cyber security threats in the Middle East have risen at least 50 per cent in 2013 compared to the previous year, with 2014 expected to register a similar increase. Nearly three-quarters are caused by human error, where for instance computers are left unguarded or systems are not password-protected when they should be.

It costs a company anywhere from $1m to $6m to deal with data breaches. Notifying people of the breach could cost up to half a million, says Erdle.

“Hackers target anything they can get. In the US, and I think it is happening here as well, there is a focus by companies on network penetration planning around critical infrastructure such as power, water, and transportation.”