Opinion | As internet adoption grows in Southeast Asia, SMEs must defend against sophisticated cyberattacks
- Cyber criminals are zeroing in on the relative lack of security at SMEs to infect numerous computers as a prelude to launching large-scale cyberattacks
The populous region’s current internet leaders are Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, along with Malaysia. US search giant Google and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings estimated late in 2018 that 90 per cent of internet users in Southeast Asia use a mobile connection.
Moreover, they predict the number of users will grow from 90 million to 350 million over the next three years, as the ranks are boosted by people in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos among others.
However, a key vulnerability in the region is the number of small to medium enterprises (SMEs), which typically have lower IT budgets than huge multinational corporations. Ernst & Young estimates that SMEs in Southeast Asia account for more than 95 per cent of all business establishments.
Given this picture, cyber criminals are zeroing in on the relative lack of security at SMEs to infect numerous computers as a prelude to launching large-scale cyberattacks, such as gaining access to a hub’s global connections via a local intrusion.
In 2016, US cybersecurity firm Mandiant reported that 80 per cent of hackers prefer attacking Asia-based organisations due to the relative ease of entry and in 2018, US internet security firm SonicWall reported that encrypted malware attacks increased almost fourfold in the region.