ABU DHABI // Almost 1,600 impounded cars are to be auctioned off to the public if they are not claimed by their owners.
The vehicles have been left for more than a year at the Bani Yas Vehicles Impounding Yard, the state news agency Wam reported.
The unclaimed vehicles will be put up for auction.
Last month, an auction held in Dubai drew international attention after it was rumoured that a Ferrari Enzo, worth US$1million (Dh3.6m), was to be put up for sale.
Although potential owners were left disappointed when the car failed to show, there is a possibility it will be offered for sale at a later date.
The municipality's tough stance on abandoned cars has been welcomed by residents.
Syed Yousuf Aftab, from Abu Dhabi, said: "This is a good move, it would ease traffic in car parks as abandoned cars choke vehicular movements."
He also suggested that the municipality should come up with solutions for those who leave their cars in car parks while they are out of the country on holiday.
"I would urge the concerned authorities to provide more parking spaces for residents where parking has already been implemented," Mr Aftab added.
Another resident, MA Mannan, said those who abandon their cars and leave the country only create problems for others. "It's good that the authorities will notify the owner and impound the car."
The Dubai Municipality classifies a vehicle as being abandoned once it has been left unattended in a public area, such as a car park or public road, for two weeks.
On the 14th day, ministry officials put a notice to the vehicle warning the owner that they have a further 24 hours to move it before it is impounded.
According to the municipality, there has been an increase in the number of abandoned vehicles over the past year.
Records for the first quarter of 2012 showed 3,040 abandoned vehicles - up more than 10 per cent from last year's statistics.
zalhassani@thenational.ae
anwar@thenational.ae
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
More from UAE Human Development Report:
Abu Dhabi GP starting grid
1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2 Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
4 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
6 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
7 Romain Grosjean (Haas)
8 Charles Leclerc (Sauber)
9 Esteban Ocon (Force India)
10 Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)
11 Carlos Sainz (Renault)
12 Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
13 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
14 Sergio Perez (Force India)
15 Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
16 Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso)
17 Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso)
18 Stoffe Vandoorne (McLaren)
19 Sergey Sirotkin (Williams)
20 Lance Stroll (Williams)
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