Companies in Southeast Asia encountered more than 24 million on-device threats in the first six months of 2024. From January to June this year, Kaspersky business solutions detected and blocked 24,289,901 threats of this kind.

Overall, organisations in Việt Nam and Indonesia experienced the most local threat incidents, logging 10,531,086 and 7,954,823 respectively. Thailand and Malaysia came behind them at third and fourth, with 2,650,007 and 1,965,270 incidents. Singapore had the lowest number of on-device threats with 501,148, while the Philippines faced 687,567 cases.

The incidents are documented via Kaspersky security solutions scans of files on hard drives at the moment they were created or accessed, as well as from scanning removable storage media.

“The increasing digitisation of financial systems, e-commerce, and other industries has increased the number of internet users and expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals. In addition, the lack of awareness of best practices and varying level of security protection also contributed to businesses facing a high number of threats and attacks,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.

“Protection against attacks coming from removable devices or non-open form files requires robust security solutions capable of treating infected objects and further enhanced with a firewall, anti-rootkit functionality and control over removable devices. Perform regular computer scan for viruses and malware to prevent spread,” Yeo added.

For overall protection, Kaspersky recommends the following:

Always keep software updated on all devices to prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities and infiltrating organisation networks. Back up data regularly and ensure it can be accessed quickly when needed or in an emergency.Assess and audit your supply chain and managed services' access to your environment.Monitor access and activity with visibility over the network to spot any unusual activity, and control user access to minimise risks of unauthorised access and data leaks.Set up a security operation centre (SOC) using a SIEM (security information and event management).Use the latest threat intelligence information for an in-depth visibility into cyberthreats targeting your organisation, and provide your InfoSec professionals with the most comprehensive and up-to-date information regarding potential malicious actors and their TTPs.Enhance employee cybersecurity awareness to help them understand how to protect themselves and the organization from threats.Employ Kaspersky Professional Services to optimise the workload of your heavily challenged IT department.If your company does not have a dedicated IT security function, and only has generalist IT admins, be aware they may lack the specialist skills required for expert-level detection and response solutions.For the protection of very small businesses, use solutions intended to help you manage your cybersecurity even without having an IT administrator on board.