APAC companies fall prey to 1,667 cyber attacks in July

It spiked tenfold from only 160 attacks in April.

Asia Pacific companies are much more vulnerable now to cybercrimes as attacks increase tenfold in just four months.

According to the latest report by cybersecurity firm Check Point, attacks on APAC companies increased exponentially from 160 in April to 1,667 attacks in July 2016.

These intrusion was done by a ransomware called Locky, a malicious software that encrypts files on an infected system and demands payment from companies in Bitcoins.

“There has been a significant increase in cyber-attacks in Asia Pacific and this will only continue to rise. The challenge for organisations is that the authors of these malwares continue to develop variants in attempts to evade detection,” Check Point Government and Defence Sector Head Rami Ben Efraim said in a statement.

Efraim noted virus and malwares are not the only threats companies have to brace for now, with money already being demanded and extorted from companies through ransomwares.

For Sanjay Aurora, Managing Director of Darktrace, the current approaches to cybersecurity are not enough to address the issue, with the current technology only devoted towards perimeter defense.

"Organisations therefore need to adopt an ‘immune system’ approach to be able to detect threats inside the network early, before a crisis develops,” Aurora specified.