Vietnamese businesses faced the highest incidence of cyber threats in Southeast Asia, experiencing 17.1 million incidents in 2023, as per data from the global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.
Indonesia followed with 14.6 million incidents, trailed by Thailand with 4.7 million.
Across Southeast Asia, nearly 43 million local threats targeted businesses in 2023. Singapore saw a 67% surge in local incidents, rising from 300,000 in 2022 to 500,000, marking the lowest in the region.
Statistics regarding local infections of user computers serve as a crucial gauge of the overall cyber threat landscape, encompassing objects that infiltrated target computers through infected files or removable media, or initially accessed the computer in non-open form (such as programs within intricate installers or encrypted files).
These statistics are derived from Kaspersky’s scans of files on hard drives at the moment of creation or access, and scans of removable storage media.
Adrian Hia, the Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky, stated, “Southeast Asia demonstrates significant potential to emerge as a key global manufacturing hub. The region also consistently shows steady digital economic growth over the years.
“To sustain these achievements, organizations, whether operating IT or OT systems, must fortify their cyber defenses against sophisticated attacks employing familiar techniques and tactics.”
Kaspersky emphasized that protection against local attacks necessitates a security solution capable of handling infected objects, alongside a firewall, anti-rootkit functionality, and control over removable devices. By employing robust security solutions to scan systems, organizations can thwart the spread of malware through files or removable media.
