Enterprises in Vietnam are facing significant cybersecurity risks as the country led Southeast Asia in suffering from on-device threats involving malware in the first half of 2024, according to Russia-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky.

According to a recent report by Kaspersky, businesses across Southeast Asia experienced a total of over 24,289,901 million on-device threats in January-June.

As described by Kaspersky, on-device threats typically involve malware spread via removable media like USB drives, CDs, and DVDs or through files that arrive on computers in non-open forms, such as those in complex installers or encrypted files.

Among the region’s countries, Vietnam was most affected by such threats with 10,531,086 incidents, followed by Indonesia with 7,954,823 incidents.

Thailand and Malaysia also faced significant challenges, registering 2,650,007 and 1,965,270 threats, respectively. 

The Philippines recorded 687,567 cases while Singapore had the lowest incidence, with 501,148 threats.

The statistics were created by Kaspersky Security Solutions’ scans of files on the hard drive at the moment they were created or accessed, as well as the results of scanning removable storage media, according to CyberSecurity Asia.

Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky, commented that the increasing digitization of financial systems, e-commerce, and other industries has pushed up the number of Internet users and at the same time expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals. 

In addition, the lack of awareness of best practices and varying levels of security protection also contributed to businesses facing high numbers of threats and attacks, he added. 

Yeo emphasized that protection against attacks originating from removable devices or non-open form files requires strong security solutions, which are capable of treating infected objects and further enhanced with a firewall, anti-rootkit functionality, and control over removable devices. 

“Perform regular computer scans for viruses and malware to prevent spread,” he said.

In order to bolster protection against on-device threats, Kaspersky advises that organizations should keep software updated to prevent the exploitation of vulnerabilities, while backing up data regularly for quick access in emergencies.

In addition, businesses should avoid pirated software, assess supply chains for potential vulnerabilities, and closely monitor network access to detect unusual activities.

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