Almost 900 cyberattacks targeted Jordan in 2021: officials

Jordan was hit by almost 900 cyberattacks last year, Jordanian officials revealed in a press conference late on Sunday, according to a report by private Jordanian TV channel Roya News.

The Jordanian Center for Cyber Security recorded 897 attacks in 2021, the organisation's head Ahmad Mulhem said at the conference, adding that the attacks were aimed at "private and governmental targets".

Among the targets were Jordanian security forces, the Royal Court, the Amman Stock Exchange and private and state-owned companies, Mulhem said.

"External actors are trying constantly to target national networks and IT systems as well as citizens and private companies," he said.

Some of the attacks were "simple and not complicated", while others disrupted networks, which resumed normal operation "after clean-up", he added.

Other attacks were classified as "sophisticated", Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs Faisal Shboul said at the press conference, saying they were likely carried out by other states or organisations.

According to figures revealed by Shboul, 34 percent of the recorded attacks targeted network users, while 27 percent of them were state-sponsored attacks.

They targeted governmental institutions, websites and e-mail servers of institutions, and individuals, the minister said.

The cyberattacks aimed to disrupt network, steal data, cyber spy, and exploit infrastructure to launch attacks on other entities, he added.

There were other cyberattacks that went undetected by the authorities, Shboul admitted.