In its first year of operation, the Dubai Police Cybercrime Division received several thousand appeals from residents of the emirate.
The new unit, created by the Dubai police to deal with the growing threat of cybercrime, received more than 9 thousand messages from residents in the first 12 months of operation.
Employees of the platform, which was launched on May 1, 2018, examined a total of 9046 complaints, including 1277 from people whose social network accounts were hacked. Most complaints are related to attempts to hack accounts on the WhatsApp messenger. The police managed to return the rightful owners access to most of those accounts that were "stolen" by cybercriminals.
Taking this opportunity, the UAE Telecommunications Authority urged users to update the WhatsApp application to avoid hacking. The warning appeared after the news about the vulnerability, thanks to which attackers could install malware on the mobile phones of victims even with a regular call through the messenger. According to cyber police, in the latest versions of applications this vulnerability has already been eliminated.
