A person works on a laptop. Cyberattacks on businesses are rising, a troubling trend that can be very costly and time consuming. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
MANILA, Philippines — Half of enterprises engaged in manufacturing, energy and other segments of the industrial sector in the Asia-Pacific region lost at least $1 million to cyberattacks that disrupted their operations, according to Kaspersky.
The cybersecurity firm, in a joint study with VDC Research, noted that some respondents also reported losses exceeding $5 million. This raises the need to improve their defenses against hackers.
Kaspersky said that when a company’s system is breached, it incur losses from the unplanned downtime, lost revenue, equipment repair and replacement, scrap or loss of inventory and even ransom payments.
Downtime is the biggest problem of a cyberattack victim
The downtime emerged as the biggest problem for the victims, as outages may last between four to 24 hours. Apart from revenue losses, Kaspersky noted this could also adversely impact customer confidence over the company.
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“While maintenance-driven strategies to combat unplanned downtime help, strengthening cybersecurity is essential to prevent breaches that lead to costly equipment failures and outages. Ignoring cybersecurity risks undermines efforts to eliminate downtime and protect profits,” said Andrey Strelkov, head of Kaspersky’s industrial cybersecurity product line.
Adrian Hia, managing director of Kaspersky in the Asia-Pacific, said that businesses in the region are “becoming prime targets for malicious cyber campaigns.” This, amid the increasing digitalization that widens the attack surface.
“A proactive cybersecurity stance is critical in enhancing business resilience, while allowing businesses to maintain its competitive edge in a region that is increasingly becoming a cyber threat hotspot,” Hia added.
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In the Philippines, Fortinet recently reported that one in every four companies has paid over $500,000 to retrieve their IT (information technology) systems from ransomware attacks and build up firewalls against future digital threats.
The cybersecurity firm noted that 78 percent of the surveyed Filipino companies claimed to have dealt with cyber threats backed by artificial intelligence (AI) last year.
A usual cyber threat targeting enterprises is the business email compromise. This entails hackers sending emails embedded with suspicious links or even digitally altered media to business emails of company employees. Such a cyberattack tricks employees into providing access to the corporate IT system.