It was followed by Indonesia with 14.6 million and Thailand with 4.7 million.

Southeast Asia saw nearly 43 million local threats targeting businesses in 2023. Singapore recorded a 67% increase in local incidents, from 300,000 in 2022 to 500,000, the lowest in the region.

Statistics on local infections of user computers are an important indicator of the overall cyberthreat landscape, and include objects that penetrated the target computer through infecting files or removable media, or initially made their way onto the computer in non-open form (for example, programmes in complex installers or encrypted files).

These statistics are produced by Kaspersky’s scans of files on the hard drive at the moment they were created or accessed and of removable storage media.

Adrian Hia, managing director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky, said: “Southeast Asia shows solid potential to become a major manufacturing hub globally. The region is also consistent in charting steady digital economic growth through the years.

“To be able to continue these feats, organisations, whether operating on IT or OT [operational technology] systems, should build their cyberdefences against sophisticated attacks that use the same old techniques and tactics.”

Protection against local attacks not only requires a security solution capable of treating infected objects but also a firewall, anti-rootkit functionality and control over removable devices, the company said, adding that by scanning systems with robust security solutions, organisations could prevent the spread of malware through files or removable media./.VNA