PHL among countries listed as top cyber-attackers’ origin

THE Philippines is among the places of origin in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region where cyber-attacks were mostly launched in the second half of last year, according to Us-based data and analytics firm Lexisnexis Risk Solutions. In its cybercrime report for July to December 2020 titled “The New Cyber Landscape,” Lexisnexis noted that top attackers in the said bloc came from the Philippines, India, Japan, Bangladesh and Malaysia.

The top cyber-attack destinations, meanwhile, were the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.

Human-initiated attacks reached 33 million, which Lexisnexis said was a 42-percent yearon-year decline. Automated bot attack, meanwhile, slid by 2 percent to 142 million for the period. Majority or 52 of the attacks were launched through desktops in the region. The remaining 48 percent—which shows a 15-percent plunge—came from mobile devices. “The APAC region remains a large contributor to global bot attacks, with Japan, India and Australia all appearing on the list of top attack originators globally,” the report noted. “The volume of automated bot attacks coming from the APAC region is largely consistent [year-on-year].”

Lexisnexis also highlighted that attack rates in the APAC region are higher compared to global averages. This, despite showing a decline in number of attacks in the region for the period.

The overall attack rate in APAC region stands at 2.3 percent, higher than the global average of 1.1 percent.

The region also registered a higher desktop attack rate at 2.8 percent, mobile attack rate at 3 percent and mobile app attack rate, compared to global averages of 1.6 percent, 2.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

The accelerated shift to digital has given cybercriminals new opportunities to launch their attacks, the company noted.

“Fraudsters also preyed on consumer anxiety, with pandemic-related scams that offered products and services that were either in demand, or in short supply,” the report said.

“Businesses will progressively need to prioritize not just a digitalfirstbut a mobile-first-strategy, to service consumers who either rarely use, or don’t have access to, a desktop device,” it added.

In the second half of 2020, the data and analytics company said that digital transactions reached 1.7 billion in the APAC region, showing 24-percent growth.

Most or 56 percent of these transactions were accomplished via mobile devices. Sixty percent were via mobile applications while the remaining 40 percent were completed through mobile browsers.

The other 44 percent of the total digital transactions for the period were facilitated via desktops.