The Chief Executive of the Arab Bankers Union, George Kardoush, announced that the Middle Eastern companies and establishments may spend 100 million dollars during the next two or three years on enhancing and developing their electronic security systems.
The Saudi newspaper Al Watan quoted Kardoush as saying that all Arab banks intend to develop their information systems in the next few years as part of their development of electronic banking operations and security systems.
Kardoush’s remarks came before the first Arab electronic banking summit conference, which will be held in Dubai between 8 and 9 April 2001. The conference will be attended by 250 Arab, International and Islamic bankers.
The newspaper explained that live demonstrations of viruses and hackers will be shown at the conference and visitors will be given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with these. The visitors will also meet with experts on the hacking of web sites who will present practical information on this risk and advise on the necessary unified actions to be taken against this crime.
“Hacking could lead to losses amounting to 1.6 trillion dollars this year alone,” the daily said. The American Industrial Security Association pointed out that there are now about 50,000 viruses in the Internet environment -- Albawaba.com
