The Philippines has moved up to 66th place in the global ranking for local cybersecurity threats, rising from 76th last year, according to Kaspersky’s latest security report.
Data from the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) showed that in 2024, the country recorded 17,706,118 local threat incidents, affecting 36.8% of users. This translates to an average of 48,500 threats detected daily. Local threats typically spread through offline methods such as infected USB drives and external hard drives.
Although the number of infections declined from 22,731,157 in 2023, Kaspersky noted that cybercriminals continue to evolve their tactics.
“While it’s encouraging to see fewer local infections, cybercriminals are constantly evolving, leveraging foreign servers and more advanced attack methods,” said Adrian Hia, managing director for Asia Pacific, Kaspersky. “This highlights the need for both organizations and individuals to remain proactive in strengthening their cybersecurity defenses.”
Types of local threats
Worms and file viruses remain the most common types of local threats. Kaspersky has observed a new trend where malware-infected USB drives can spread harmful code to other devices.
“In 2024, we found a new trend where a secure USB drive was compromised by a malicious code that was not only programmed to steal data but acted as a USB worm infecting other USB drives,” Hia said.
While local infections have declined, cybercriminals are increasingly using foreign servers to execute attacks. The top sources in 2024 were the Netherlands (39.52%), the United States (26.15%), Germany (2.71%), France (2.61%), and Russia (1.74%).
Kaspersky advises individuals and businesses to implement strong cybersecurity measures, including antivirus software, strict access controls, and regular security updates, to prevent both local and international cyber threats.