Malaysia No 2 in region for malicious emails

More than half of the malicious emails circulated across the Asia-Pacific (Apac) region were detected in five countries, including Malaysia, global cybersecurity company Kaspersky revealed.

It said that as of mid-August, Malaysia was among the top five countries in Apac, including Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan, to accumulate 61.1% of the total malicious emails detected by Kaspersky Mail Antivirus.

Vietnam topped the list with 3.09 million spam emails detected, followed by Malaysia (2.36 million), Japan (1.86 million), Indonesia (1.80 million) and Taiwan (1.45 million).

Kaspersky senior security researcher Noushin Shabab said the Apac region accounted for almost 24% of total global malicious emails detected this year.

“The Apac region has almost 60% of the world’s population. This means there are more potential victims for scammers here compared to other parts of the world,” she said in a cybersecurity presentation here.

“The extensive use of online services, such as online shopping, and other online platforms for day-to-day activities here also makes individuals more susceptible to scams,” she said.

Noushin said there were three main factors – its population, the high adoption of e-services, and the pandemic lockdowns – causing the bulk of spam emails targeting Apac.

“There is also the lingering pandemic aftermath, which led to lockdowns and work-from-home set-up in the region where people took their work computers home.

“Home networks are usually less protected from cyberattacks,” she added

Nevertheless, Noushin noted that the number of malicious spam emails detected by Kaspersky had seen a gradual decline after its peak in 2019.

“These malicious emails were mostly sent by cybercriminals in the form of mass emails to reach more users, with the intention of making financial gains for the attacker.

“Our constant monitoring of current and new advanced persistent threats in Apac shows that the majority of these notorious actors use targeted phishing, called spear phishing, to crack into an organisation’s system,” she said. FMT

Malaysia No 2 in region for malicious emails

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