The whole day conference included simulations and workshops on cybersecurity implementations in three major sectors such as government, banking and finance, and critical infrastructure facilitated by executives from Kaspersky Lab.
State of Mobile Threats and Targeted Attacks in the Philippines
In his presentation, Kaspersky Lab’s elite security researcher Vitaly Kamluk revealed that the Philippines is now the eighth (8th) most attacked country globally by mobile malware in 2016. Fresh data from Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) showed over three-in-10 (34.97%) Filipinos with smartphones have been infected by this type of threat last year.
KSN is a complex, distributed infrastructure that processes depersonalized cybersecurity-related data streams from millions of voluntary Kaspersky Lab product users around the world.
Kamluk also disclosed for the first time four Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) targeting organizations in the country for the past 12 months. An APT is a type of attack which involves organized and sophisticated hacking into the networks of the target company or individual.
The cybersecurity expert named the following APT groups and the dates of their infection into companies and organizations in the Philippines:
● Diplomatic Duck (September 2016)
● Naikon Kaba1 (January 2017)
● Tropic Trooper (March 2017)
● Spring Dragon (July 2017)
“From only 15.7% of Filipinos attacked by mobile malware during the first quarter of 2016, the country ended up scoring 34.97% of smartphone users on average who were successfully infected with mobile malware last year. Our research and threat analysis has also uncovered four high-profile targeted attacks within a span of 12 months aimed against facilities and companies in the Philippines. Computer breaches and malware outbreaks are happening non-stop now, the effects are being felt and seen to affect human lives. There is no other way but to create a country with people and organizations concerned, aware, and vigilant in protecting themselves and the nation’s cyberspace,” explained Kamluk.
