Middle East businesses face unprecedented levels of cyber attacks, as global security vulnerabilities and threats against systems, applications, and personal networks have reached their highest-ever recorded level, Cisco said in its “2014 Annual Security Report”.

In the rapidly evolving world of security threats, total global threat alerts increased 14% from 2012 to 2013. Around the world, a sample of 30 of the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies generated visitor traffic to websites that host malware, with the Middle East’s energy, oil, and gas sector seeing a sharp rise in malware attacks.

“Organisations across the Middle East and Africa must realise that it is no longer if they will targeted by cyber attacks, but rather when,” said Cisco Qatar general manager Mohammad Hamoudi.

“Chief information security officers face growing pressure to protect terabytes of data on an increasingly porous network, manage information safely especially on the cloud, and evaluate the risks of working with third-party vendors for specialised solutions – all in the wake of shrinking budgets and leaner IT teams.”

The Middle East and Africa region is posting strong adoption of smart devices, set to grow from 133mn in 2013 to 598mn in 2018, and cloud computing, set to post the world’s-strongest cloud traffic growth rate from 17 exabytes in 2012 to 157 exabytes in 2017, Cisco said.

However, while increasing mobility is rapidly enhancing daily lives and businesses, it is also driving more complex security threats and solutions, it said.

“Businesses across the Middle East are at high risk, with 65% of employees not understanding the security risks of using personal devices to the workplace,” said.

As a result, cyber criminals are increasingly attacking Internet infrastructure rather than individual computers or devices, with password and credential theft, hidden-in-plain-sight infiltrations, and breaching and stealing data.

The report also flagged up a host of troublesome trends, including Android mobile devices bearing the brunt of 99% of all mobile malware, Java being the most frequently exploited programming language, and Multipurpose Trojans counting as the most frequently encountered web-delivered malware.

Specific business sectors besides energy, such as pharmaceutical, chemical, electronics manufacturing, agriculture; and mining are showing sharp rise in malware attacks.

Furthermore, the report indicates a shortage of more than 1mn security professionals across the globe in 2014, as most organisations do not have the people or systems to continuously monitor extended networks or detect infiltrations, and then apply protections, in a timely and effective manner.