APAC to face more forms of phishing attacks in 2024

Experts at Kaspersky believe that the strong digital transformation movement in the Asia- Pacific (APAC) region threatens cybersecurity in APAC by 2024.

The scale of phishing attacks and online scams in Southeast Asia will continue to increase

The threat of phishing, scams, data breaches and geopolitically motivated cyber attacks will continue to target organizations and individuals in the region.

“Asia Pacific ’s digital economy continues to grow exponentially and is expected to continue its momentum over the next five years. With digitalization efforts, including the adoption of technologies such as digital payments, super apps, IoT, smart cities and now artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity will be key to ensuring the resilience of the region’s collective defense against the potential for damage from cyberattacks,” said Vitaly Kamluk, Director of Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) Asia Pacific.

“When it comes to advanced persistent threats (APTs), we see that cyber espionage remains the main target in Asian countries in the region and this trend will continue in 2024 due to existing geopolitical tensions,” Vitaly Kamluk added.

Hundreds of thousands of people from Southeast Asia (SEA) have been recruited to engage in online fraud, including romance scams, cryptocurrency scams, money laundering, and illegal gambling, according to a United Nations report. Recruitment for these criminal activities is mostly done through professional positions such as programmers, marketers, or human resources specialists, through advertisements, procedures that appear legitimate and even complicated. The use and reliance on digital payment methods, the lack of regulations to protect online users’ rights, and the large number of people forced into online fraud add to the complexity of this major problem in Southeast Asia and in addressing it.

“Law enforcement is working on a number of cases involving phishing attacks and scams, and we have seen success in 2023, such as the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Malaysian Police working together to arrest eight individuals behind a syndicate that was running a phishing-as-a-service campaign,” said Vitaly Kamluk.

“We expect the scale of phishing and online scam attacks in Southeast Asia to continue to grow in the coming years due to the lack of technical and legal knowledge related to such attacks, from operators to victims,” added Vitaly Kamluk.

KIM THANH

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/apac-se-doi-mat-voi-nhieu-hinh-thuc-tan-cong-gia-mao-lua-dao-trong-nam-2024-post723658.html