GLOBAL security firm Kaspersky said it blocked a total of 1.59 million local threats from infecting Philippine companies in 2022.
The number is a 57.74% decline from the over 2.7 million attacks recorded in the Philippines in 2021, which Kaspersky said is consistent among Southeast Asian countries.
“The peak of the pandemic in 2020 saw 92 million local infections prevented by Kaspersky. It dipped in 2021 with 69 million incidents and further down last year with 49M, almost just half of 2020’s total number,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.
“Despite the downward trend, businesses should still be on guard because weaponized USBs and removable drives can still be an effective source of malware that can compromise your networks, servers, and even hardware,” he said.
In Southeast Asia, Kaspersky recorded the highest attacks in Indonesia at 19.61 million, followed by Vietnam at 17.83 million and Thailand at 5.83 million.
Meanwhile, around 3.84 million local threats were prevented in Malaysia, followed by the Philippines at 1.59 million, and Singapore at 328,844.
According to Kaspersky, the numbers represent the “malicious programs found directly on users’ computers or removable media connected to them or which initially made their way onto the computer in non-open form.”
Removable media include flash drives, camera memory cards, phones, and external hard drives, while non-open forms are programs in complex installers and encrypted files, among others.
To counter the threats, Kaspersky said businesses should build a firewall, anti-rootkit functionality and control over removable devices besides having an antivirus solution. — Justine Irish D. Tabile