Philippines a favorite target of cyber criminals, says web security firm

MANILA, Philippines – A leading international cyber security firm yesterday stressed the need for companies and financial institutions particularly banks to beef up their security measures as the Philippines is a favorite target of cyber criminals.

Elad Ben-Meir, vice president for marketing at CyberInt, said in a press conference the Philippines is a favorite of cyber criminals because of its high exposure to social media and weak cyber security.

He said the Philippines ranks third in the Asia Pacific region for social media scams and seventh for ransomware attacks with an average of 17 attacks per day.

Ben-Meir said the average malware encounter rate or the percentage of computers that report a detection of malicious software in the Philippines at 29.1 percent is nearly double the global average of 14.8 percent.

Ben-Meir also cited the lack of certified information systems security professional in the Philippines with only 84 compared with 67,000 in the US and 1,000 in Singapore, Japan as well as Australia.

He said the entry of the Tel-Aviv based cyber security firm in the Philippines through local partner IPV Network is timely in light of the $81-million bank heist and the recent hacking of the database of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

About $81 million worth of funds stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York entered the Philippines last February using Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. as a conduit. “These things could have been prevented with specific tools,” he said.

On the other hand, the personal information of 70 million voters was made public after the voters’ list of the Comelec was hacked last March.

Ben-Meir pointed out there is a need to mitigate the threat rather than the incident by identifying early stage weaponization online, detecting phishing tools to customers or employees in social media, spotting databases for sale, and exploitation monitoring or investigation.

IPV Network chief executive officer Miguel Ramos said no business is safe from cyber threats in today’s digital age from stealing data, to defacing online assets, to the installation of malware on personal computers, companies of all types and sizes.