Ammon News - Minister of State for Media Affairs, Faisal Shboul said Sunday that Jordan was subjected to 897 cyber attacks in 2021.

"Those attacks were documented by the National Cyber Security Center, excluding attacks that were not documented and competent authorities receive notification on them," Shboul said in a press conference held Sunday at the Prime Ministry with head of the National Cyber Security Center, Ahmed Melhem, to discuss the Kingdom's efforts in the cybersecurity field.

In the conference, which was held to highlight the center's first year efforts in combating cyber attacks and threats in Jordan in 2021, Shboul said the Jordanian National National Cyber Security Center was established in early 2021, according to the Cyber Security Law No. (16) of 2019, and it is linked with the Prime Minister in accordance with Article (5/b) of this law.

Shboul added that countries around the world, including Jordan, are subjected to increasing cyber attacks, varying in their numbers and targets, indicating that these attacks focus on sovereign institutions, financial and economic targets, and individuals as well.

He noted that severity of these attacks ranges from complex attacks, which include attacks that are launched states and organizations, or attacks carried out by individuals and amateurs.

In this regard, Shboul pointed out that Jordan was subjected to 240 complex cyber attacks, 27 per cent of last year's attacks, indicating that these attacks targeted sovereign, official and security institutions, private sector companies and individuals.

"Information war is a feature of this era, in light of the advancement of communication technologies and digital communication tools, and the more information systems develop around the world, the more countries, organizations, institutions and people become active in hacking into those systems," the media minister explained.

He added that the world protects itself through specialized centers for cyber security to deal with such wars, noting that countering cyber-targeting is carried out first with international cooperation between countries of the world to track sources of attacks, and to protect information systems, in addition to individuals' keenness to avoid storing highly private data.

In order to confront cyber-attacks, Shboul urged any person or institution to contact the National Cyber Security Center to report any hacking attempts, pointing out that in this case, the center will, within its jurisdiction, track its source if it occurs.

In turn, Melhem stressed that the center was established at the beginning of last year with the aim of building, developing and organizing an effective system for cyber security at the national level in order to protect the Kingdom from any cyber attack threats, noting that 4 per cent of cyber attacks on Jordan last year were for espionage, political and economic purposes.

He added that the data confirmed that most of the cyber attacks on Jordan last year were launched from 40 countries around the world, stressing that identifying the country, from which the attack was launched, was difficult, as the attacker may use an infrastructure in any country, and that the attacks targeted the internal network and operating systems of a number of official institutions and individuals.

Melhem explained that cyber incidents registered by the center amounted to 897 in 2021 according to the threat sources, 34 per cent of which were related to users, 27 per cent were from countries or groups linked to countries, 26 per cent were related to cyber crimes, and 13 per cent were related to extremist or terrorist organizations.

Melhem called on citizens who feel that their phones have been hacked to contact the center, noting that there is no permanent damage behind these hacks.

He said national cybersecurity policies must be applied, and potential victims must contact the National Cyber Security Center to report any incident, hacking or cyber attack, as well as following best practices to protect information and networks.

Melhem indicated that among key targets of cyber-security attacks are military and security institutions, the financial sector, telecommunications companies, the energy sector / electricity companies, government institutions, and embassies abroad.

He noted that the center hasn't recently received any complaints regarding cyber incidents.

He said that up to this moment, there have been no prosecutions due to cyber attacks, noting that there is no country in the world capable of completely stopping cyber attacks. "But we have the required capabilities to deal with any cases of hacking."

He added that immediate actions res were taken by the center when cyber attacks were detected, and this was already done in all attacks that were discovered.