PHL tops global botnet, malware charts –report

A widespread lack of cybersecurity awareness has enabled the proliferation of malware in the Philippines, according to experts.

The Philippines was recently cited as the world's "botnet haven" and a "disproportionately large" source of banking Trojan malware in a recent study.

PHL leads global botnet detections

Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes reported in its 2017 State of Malware Report that over 61% of botnet detections worldwide were in Asia. 

More worryingly, however, the company also said in its Asia Pacific State of Malware Report 2017 that the Philippines is at the top of the heap—accounting for over 50% of botnet detections in the region.

Malwarebytes calls botnets "the biggest threat on the internet," defined as a group of remotely-controlled "zombie" computers used to initiate website shutdowns (DDS attacks), spamming, phishing, and bitcoin mining.

A botnet recruits computers by either hiring them surreptitiously or infecting unwitting users with a trojan virus.

Widespread lax cybersecurity

While the Malwarebytes report did not specify by which method Philippine computers have been roped into botnets, the unusually high incidence points to generally lax cybersecurity across the country.

"The Philippines has big botnet farms in the sense na maraming 'zombie' computers dito," Pierre Tito Galla, Democracy.net.ph co-founder and cybersecurity advocate, told GMA News Online.

"Maraming lax practices: torrenting remains rampant, the downloading and use of pirated and unverified software is still there, and the refusal of people and even companies to patch and update their software assets," he explained.

A source, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, went so far as to say that the Philippine government itself was highly vulnerable to being recruited into botnets.

"Maraming government offices, kahit sa military at law enforcement, worse pa ang information security practices kaysa sa unsecured private corporations. I suspect maraming botnet computers sa kanila," the source said.

Online banking: risky

Malwarebytes also aired concern that online banking was "risky" in the Philippines, which suffers from "a disproportionately large amount" of Trojan malware detections. 

"(I)n general, Asia is not the top continent for cybercriminal attack (but) we see that the emerging markets in Asia are generally more vulnerable to malware," said Malwarebytes' Jeff Hurmuses, Area Vice President and Managing Director - Asia Pacific, in a press release.

"It is likely that as developed markets in Europe and the US begin to take cyber security more seriously we will see cyber criminals looking for new targets amongst Asia Pacific's developed economies," he warned. — GMA News