The Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia are “highly vulnerable” to major threat actors, such as China, Russia and North Korea, as far as cyber crimes are concerned, according to a cyber security technology firm Crowdstrike.
In a recent online press briefing, Crowdstrike Vice President Adam Meyers said threats such as malware and non-malware are prevalent in the region. He also warned that China is “a very aggressive player” in the region.
“You should (keep) a close watch on China as it promotes the Belt Road Initiative and regional hegemony,” Meyers said. “Make no mistake about it, you are in the crosshairs.”
Amol Kulkarni, head of CrowdStrike’s product and engineering said cyber security must always be top of mind for organizations as the world enters the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “Cyber security is critical irrespective of where we are.”
“It is also important in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, different economic climate and reduced budgets, we still have a robust demand for cyber security.”
In its recent study, major network security provider Kaspersky said cyber criminals are busy uncovering entry points in the Southeast Asian region.
Chris Connell, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky, said cyber criminals are on the hunt for unpatched software, one-day vulnerabilities, and exploitable remote access and management services. He added malicious actors have a lot of options to infect lucrative industries.
“In short, a cyber attack is like a ticking bomb. While worrisome, reports such as our Digital Footprint Intelligence can be used as a tool to guide the cyber security capacity building of concerned organizations. If you know your weak areas, it’s easier to prioritize.”
To protect businesses from such threats, Kaspersky experts said management should regulate every major change to the network perimeter hosts, including services or applications launching, exposing new APIs, software installation and updating, network devices configuration, among others.
“All changes should be reviewed from the perspective of security impact,” Connel said.
He said companies must focus their defense strategy on detecting lateral movements and data exfiltration to the internet. He said they should pay special attention to outgoing traffic to detect cybercriminal connections. He also urged to backup data regularly and ensure quicker access in an emergency.