In 2024, security solutions from cybersecurity company Kaspersky detected and blocked nearly 50 million cyber attacks aimed at spreading malware to internal devices of businesses in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region.
This figure shows the urgent need for organizations to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities to effectively respond to threats from USB and mobile storage devices.
Offline threats are often spread through devices such as USB, external hard drives, or other mobile storage devices, aiming to spread malware to target systems. Unlike traditional cyber attacks that rely on internet connection, this form of attack takes advantage of users' subjectivity towards familiar hardware devices, which are considered safe and harmless.
Overall, in 2024, Kaspersky's cybersecurity experts successfully blocked 49,234,759 online threats targeting businesses in Southeast Asia, up 15% from nearly 43 million in 2023.
Of which, Vietnam recorded more than 21 million cases of online attacks (leading the region), followed by Indonesia (16 million cases), Thailand (5.6 million cases), Malaysia (4 million cases)...
However, compared to 2023, the rate of online attacks on businesses in Vietnam has only increased by 25%, less than Singapore (88%), Malaysia (47%). Indonesia is the only country to record a slight decrease, with the number of threats in 2024 down 3% compared to the same period last year.
In fact, we have recorded many sophisticated cyber attacks, taking advantage of seemingly harmless USB devices and mobile drives to infect the entire system of a business. As online malware attacks continue to grow, businesses and organizations in Southeast Asia need to remain vigilant and proactively deploy comprehensive precautions, ready to respond to all risks.
Understanding the risks and building a solid defense system will help organizations protect themselves from this growing threat, said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Director of Kaspersky Southeast Asia.
To avoid becoming victims of targeted attacks via the online method, cybersecurity experts recommend that individuals and organizations should take the following measures:
- grant access to the latest threat intelligence (TI) to the SOC team (security operations center) of the enterprise.
- Improve the professional capacity of the cybersecurity team through specialized training courses developed by leading experts.
- Deploy enterprise-level security solutions to detect sophisticated threats at the network level early.
- Use centralized and automated security solutions, such as Next XDR Expert, to meet the comprehensive security needs of businesses' assets.
- Deploy training programs to raise awareness of security and equip employees with practical skills. This is especially important as many targeted attacks often begin with fraudulent attacks or other non-technical attacks.
- Regularly update the operating system and software as soon as the latest version is available.
