Despite the increasing cyber threats and expanding attack surfaces, Kaspersky found that 71% of organizations in Southeast Asia (SEA) are experiencing hiring challenges. As attacks become more frequent and sophisticated, businesses need more advanced skills along with reliable security solutions to mitigate attacks.
According to Lai Leng Chow, head of Enterprise for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky, financial phishing incidents in the Philippines topped the list in 2023, with over 116,000 attacks detected and blocked.
“We have been continuously monitoring security across a constantly changing and growing attack surface,” Chow said, emphasizing the increasing sophistication and volume of cyberattacks that enterprises must contend with.
In the Philippines, the financial sector has become a prime target. Kaspersky’s data shows that the country experienced the highest number of financial phishing attacks in the region, underscoring its vulnerability. In addition to financial phishing, local threats, brute force attacks, and ransomware were also prevalent.
Last year alone, over 1.5 million local threats and more than 4.6 million brute force attacks were detected and blocked by Kaspersky in the Philippines. Ransomware attacks targeted Philippines enterprises more than 15,000 times.
The escalation in cyber threats is not unique to the Philippines. Neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam are also witnessing a surge in cyber incidents. This trend has prompted enterprises to seek more advanced and automated security solutions. Chow pointed out that 66% of enterprises are consolidating their cybersecurity tools, and 59% are implementing automation to manage the increasing number of security alerts and reduce staff burnout.
The challenges are compounded by a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. As mentioned 71% of enterprises said that they have challenges in hiring expertise.
“It takes them up to nine months to hire a professional in the cybersecurity space,” Chow said. “This shortage of skilled personnel makes it difficult for companies to keep up with the rapidly evolving threat landscape.”
To address these issues, enterprises are increasingly turning to comprehensive security strategies that go beyond traditional antivirus solutions. This includes implementing endpoint detection and response (EDR), network threat analysis, and extended detection and response (XDR) solutions. “Next-gen antivirus is no longer sufficient,” Chow stated, advocating for a holistic approach to cybersecurity that includes training for staff and leveraging threat intelligence.
Kaspersky Next
With these developments, the cybersecurity solutions company expanded its enterprise solutions with Kaspersky Next, a new line of cybersecurity products that includes robust endpoint protection powered by AI capabilities.
Kaspersky Next goes beyond the classic EPP (Endpoint Protection Platform), bringing together EDR and XDR for corporate customers of any size and industry. As the most advanced and effective cybersecurity solutions, EDR and XDR help companies to withstand the more prevalent, evasive, and sophisticated attacks, providing businesses with total visibility, control, rapid response, and proactive threat hunting.
Kaspersky Next is deployment-agnostic and allows for both cloud and on-premise installations. Companies can manage it either through a streamlined console to perform core cybersecurity tasks quickly or via an enterprise-grade console with more granular controls and advanced monitoring.
The new product line helps companies build crucial cybersecurity functions, to provide robust protection against multiple types of threats that businesses face the most, such as ransomware, malware and data breaches, and avoid infrastructure penetration through Business Email Compromise, supply chain attacks, exploits, and other vulnerabilities.