Social Mixer 2024 Singapore
marketing interactive Content360 Singapore 2024 Content360 Singapore 2024
Phishing attacks in SEA soar by a million compared to 2021

Phishing attacks in SEA soar by a million compared to 2021

share on

Phishing attacks in Southeast Asia have grown exponentially during the first half of the year. According to Kaspersky, it blocked 12,127,692 malicious links in the region from January to June 2022, a million more than the total number last year - 11,260,643.

More than half of the H1 2022 detections were targeting Kaspersky users in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Out of the six Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam recorded more phishing emails during the first six months of this year compared to their total number of incidents in 2021. Indonesia and Singapore, on the other hand, witnessed a dip.

kaspersky phishing attacks

Phishing, a type of social engineering attack, remains one of the key methods used by attackers to compromise their targets – both individuals and organisations. It works as it is done on a large scale where cybercriminals send massive waves of emails purporting to be legitimate companies or personalities to promote fake pages or infect users with malicious attachments.

The end goal of a phishing attack is to steal credentials – particularly financial and login information – to steal money or worst to compromise an entire organisation.

According to Kaspersky's GM for Southeast Asia, Yeo Siang Tiong, the first half of the year is eventful in good and bad ways.

"On a personal level, we went through the seismic shift of trying to regain our lives post-pandemic, forcing companies and organisations to welcome remote and hybrid work. The travel sector, including airlines, airports, travel agencies, and more, has also been overwhelmed by the influx of tourists wanting to travel with borders now open," Yeo said.

He added that behind these shifts are networks and systems that needed to be updated and secured hastily. On the other hand, cybercriminals are all ears and with their ability to tweak their messages and infuse them with believable urgency. As a result, Yeo said the company has seen real, unfortunate incidents of victims losing money because of phishing attacks.

Aside from individual’s loss of money, Kaspersky also highlighted that most of the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups in the Asia Pacific including Southeast Asia use targeted phishing to enter into a highly-defended network.

According to Kaspersky, an APT uses continuous, clandestine, and sophisticated hacking techniques to gain access to a system and remain inside for a prolonged period of time, with potentially destructive consequences.

Due to the level of effort needed to carry out such an attack, APTs are usually leveled at high-value targets, such as nation states and large corporations, with the ultimate goal of stealing information over a long period of time, rather than simply "dipping in" and leaving quickly, as many black hat hackers do during lower level cyber assaults.

Yeo said that 75% of executives in the region are aware and even anticipate an APT attack against their organisations. Hence, it is crucial to have backup security plans, such as incident response capabilities, to prevent such attacks.

Digital Marketing Asia is back for its 10th year! 10 years of exclusive insights, experience sharing and great success stories. Join us for three days of hyper-focused presentation topics across six tracks on 15 - 17 November and connect with 1000+ of the world's brightest minds in the marketing world to learn and upscale from 85+ speakers from the hottest regional and global brands. Click here to register now!

Related articles:
Starbucks SG involved in data breach
Razer takes Capgemini to court over data breach, says Capgemini played game of 'smoke and mirrors'
Love, Bonito slapped with SG$24k fine over 2019 data breach
KrisShop falls prey to data breach, nearly 5k customer accounts impacted
Harbour Plaza Hotel data breach sees 1.2m customer data leaked

share on

Follow us on our Telegram channel for the latest updates in the marketing and advertising scene.
Follow

Free newsletter

Get the daily lowdown on Asia's top marketing stories.

We break down the big and messy topics of the day so you're updated on the most important developments in Asia's marketing development – for free.

subscribe now open in new window