PH firms among most vulnerable to cyberattacks, says Kroll report

Enterprises in the Philippines are among the most vulnerable in the Asia-Pacific region to cyberattacks that cause business interruption and even data loss, according to a recent report by independent risk advisory firm Kroll.

In its State of Incident Response: Asia-Pacific report, Kroll noted that three in four or 75 percent of the businesses in the country have dealt with a cyberattack, which was higher than the 59-percent average in the region.

Philippines came in second with the most cyberattacks in the region; Malaysia was the first with 76 percent.

“Cyber attackers will seek out any country that has vulnerabilities, and we can see that all Asia-Pacific markets are affected by this to an extent,” said Jay Gomez, senior vice president for cyber risk at Kroll.

“Despite the number of cyber incidents, many companies still do not have a response plan in place if an incident were to occur, which leaves companies at the risk of being unable to handle an incident effectively and of being vulnerable to further attacks,” he added.

The most common cyber incidents in the Philippines were malware and phishing, the study noted.

Malware, or “malicious software,” is designed to penetrate a computer or network of computers in a bid to illegally access information or disrupt operations.

Phishing is a fraudulent activity that tricks users into giving out personal information, such as passwords, credit card numbers and bank account details, through malicious links delivered via emails and other modes.

The latter has been more prevalent in the country recently with the surge of text scams. The local telecommunication companies have been blocking spam messages to curb their proliferation.

Mitigation measures

“A combination of having mitigation measures brought about by considered investment in cyber security, together with a trusted cyber security advisor, will go a long way to reducing the impact of cyberattacks and enable businesses in Asia-Pacific to recover more quickly,” said Paul Jackson, Kroll regional managing director of Asia-Pacific.

According to International Data Corp.’s (IDC) Asia-Pacific Security Sourcing Survey 2022, companies in Southeast Asia recognize the need to invest in cybersecurity in the advent of heightened usage of digital platforms in their operations.

“Adoption of digital tools and modernization of business applications and distributed infrastructure have been the hallmarks of the digital-first era, which also significantly increases the attack surfaces for cyber threats,” James Sivalingam, senior program manager of IDC Asia Pacific, said in a recent report.

“Thus, Southeast Asian businesses will be turning to trusted security partners for advice, implementation and management of security operations to improve their security posture,” he added.

IDC shared that businesses in the region spent $3.2 billion last year on cybersecurity, including the acquisition of software and payment of related services. This is expected to grow to $6.1 billion by 2026. INQ