Phl 5th most attacked online

Kaspersky revealed users in the Philippines are attacked through the drive-by download method

The Philippines now ranks fifth in Kaspersky Lab’s global ranking of countries with the most online threats detected.

In its Global Q2 2019 Security Bulletin, data from the Russian cybersecurity firm showed nearly seven million or 37.4 percent of Kaspersky users in the Philippines were attacked while surfing the web from April to May this year.

The other most attacked countries are Algeria (44.1 percent), Nepal (43 percent), Albania (40.1 percent) and Djibouti (37.9 percent).

“The targeted Kaspersky users are about nine percent of the total Internet users in the Philippines today which, from a cybersecurity point of view, is a big number and is worth paying attention to,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Kaspersky Southeast Asia.

“We can still point at the general carelessness and lack of online security awareness among our Filipino Internet users. Like it is a known fact that when one buys a new smartphone, he or she will buy a protective case or some accessories, but not an Internet security solution.

“On social media alone, the 18-34 years old age bracket account for 63 percent of users this year compared to only 41.7 percent in 2018. And with recent data showing each Internet user now owns an average of 10 social media accounts, we need to be resolute in our push to have every person using the Internet learn how to actively safeguard his or her data,” Yeo added.

The statistics in the report are based on completely anonymous data obtained from Kaspersky products installed on users’ computers in the Philippines.

Attempts to infect users’ computers and devices normally happen when a web surfer visits a website that he didn’t know was infected. Such an unsecured website is planted with malicious scripts that install malware directly onto the computer or device.

In the same report, Kaspersky also noted a minor increase in cyberthreat incidents caused by servers hosted in the Philippines.

About 67,000 or 15 percent more incidents were recorded from April-June this year compared to the same quarter in 2018. These figures placed the Philippines at 34th this year from 36th in 2018.

Local threats or incidents are those that are caused by malware spread via removable media such as USB drives, CD and DVD, and other “offline” methods, according to the firm.

Data from Kaspersky revealed that its users in the Philippines were attacked by cybercriminals through the popular attack method called drive-by download.