Singapore falls prey to malicious URLs

There were 7.1 million clicks on malicious links in Singapore, nearly beating 7.4 million in Indonesia.

Singapore continued to fall prey to malicious URLs in Asia, as a Trend Micro report revealed that it generated 7.1 million clicks on malicious links, nearly overcoming the first place Indonesia with 7.4 million links.

Within Southeast Asia, the firm blocked malicious URLs hosted in Singapore more than 2.5 million times, significantly more than they did in Thailand (372,000 times) which ranked second.

Malicious URLs were being accessed more than 241 million times in Asia, accounting for a whopping 57.9% of all malicious links accessed globally.

Meanwhile, over 298 million malware attacks were detected in Asia, accounting for 37.8% of all such attacks discovered globally. Singapore saw over 6 million such attempts, coming in second place in Southeast Asia.

About 51.4% of banking malware, or 88,000 in 172,000, has also been recorded in Asia. Singapore was not amongst the top countries when it came to banking malware attacks, however.

About 75.9% of macro malware attacks, usually targeting Microsoft Office, were found in Asia. Singapore came in second place for such attacks found in Southeast Asia, recording a total of 1,002 detections, almost twice of what Malaysia recorded at 579.

Moreover, 73.5% of point-of-sale (PoS) malware attacks were discovered in Asia. However, only recorded one incident of a PoS malware attack in Singapore, the lowest of all countries in Southeast Asia.

Malicious mobile apps downloaded in Asia accounted for a whopping 87.2% of all such apps downloaded globally. Notably, Singapore had the lowest ratio of total mobile apps downloaded versus total malicious mobile apps downloaded in Southeast Asia. Only 0.9% of mobile apps downloaded in Singapore were malicious.

About 83.2% of exploit kit attacks were launched in Asia – the highest of all regions. Singapore recorded 261 cases of exploit kit attacks, averaging 44 attacks every month.