MANILA, Philippines — The transition of Asia-Pacific economies, including the Philippines, to digital will expose them to vulnerabilities that may pave the way for the rise of new kinds of cybersecurity risks.
In a forecast, cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks laid out five predictions on what digital issues countries in Asia and the Pacific will face in 2023 that may disrupt the online activities of both individuals and enterprises.
First, Palo Alto Networks said the sped up adoption of 5G would create troubles for telco providers, especially as the region is expected to host 430 million 5G users by 2025.
“While cloud provides greater agility, scalability, and performance, it also exposes the 5G core to cloud security vulnerabilities. Large-scale attacks could come from anywhere, even from within the operator’s network,” Palo Alto Networks said.
Second, Palo Alto Networks asked the medical industry to intensify the security features of their digital systems that contain patient data. Digital fraudsters find hospital computers as potential targets given the sensitivity of information that they hold.
“The closer the device is to a patient, the more likely it is to impact patient safety, and the more likely a threat actor will weaponize it, so ensuring the cybersecurity of medical Internet of things will be important as ever for patient safety,” the cybersecurity firm said.
Palo Alto Networks said the private sector could also deal with operational disruptions as a result of cybersecurity attacks on cloud storages where data is kept.
“We have seen attackers targeting volunteers who maintain these open source code constructs to infiltrate organizations through the package update processes,” Palo Alto Networks said.
“This issue falls under the cloud supply chain and we will see more disruptions due to the cloud adoption trends in the coming years. At least 37 percent of organizations expect software supply chain attacks to increase most in 2023,” it said.
Similarly, Palo Alto Networks said governments are seen intensifying their regulations controlling the flow of data with the intention of protecting citizens from possible breaches. As such, it sees 2023 to be a year when legislators debate data localization and sovereignty.
Last, the growth of the metaverse into a $54 billion industry could open up a new playground for digital criminals that could pose risks to users of the emerging platform.
“Companies will take advantage of mixed reality experiences to diversify their offering and cater to the needs of consumers in the metaverse,” Palo Alto Networks said.