The days when cyberspace could be regarded as a lawless wild west are long over. The internet has become a critical part of our global infrastructure, and attacks against its core functions, especially in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, should be treated as the existential threats that they are.The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the internet is a critical – and uniquely global – part of our infrastructure.

While ASEAN is increasingly coordinating its efforts to reinforce regional cybersecurity, more needs to be done to address the constantly evolving threats.According to a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report, one of the biggest concerns in regards to the current COVID-19 crisis is the increase in cyberattacks and data fraud. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of a digital culture worldwide.

Terrorism in Southeast Asia has long been a threat. Previously, the spectre of terrorism haunted the region via threats of physical violence, from bombings to kidnappings. However, in the current internet age, terrorism has found new ways to attack its targets. Cyberterrorism in the region has been a growing concern and experts have called out ASEAN’s slow response to it.At the moment, Southeast Asian countries are lagging behind when it comes to cybersecurity.

Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most economically dynamic regions, but there is a large and potentially disastrous flaw in the business model of many companies in the region. In 2017, ASEAN member states collectively spent US$1.9 billion or 0.06 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on cybersecurity, less than half of the global average of 0.13 percent.

ASEAN has a problem as far as personal data protection goes, and at the bottom of this rung sits Thailand.

Vietnam’s growing reputation for cyber espionage has seen cybersecurity firms accuse the country’s state-sanctioned hackers of being responsible for attacks on everything from Toyota to the ASEAN Secretariat.While China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have long been the world’s most active state-sanctioned cyber espionage players, Vietnam is increasingly being implicated for similar activities.Vietnam was the fourth biggest source of credential stuffing last year – a sophisticated strike where

The adoption of cloud computing across Southeast Asia has expanded in terms of services offered and the number of industry competitors entering the market.

Credential stuffing has the potential to wipe out bank accounts and steal identities – and Southeast Asia is one of the biggest culprits.A sophisticated strike where hackers use specialised software to launch multiple automatic attempts to log into a website or app using stolen usernames and passwords, the term “credential stuffing” is widely credited to Sumit Agarwal, the co-founder of cybersecurity firm Shape Security who coined it when serving as the United States’ Deputy Assistant Secreta

Ransomware is making its way back as one of the biggest threats to cybersecurity.A malicious software (malware) hidden in links, attachments or websites, ransomware locks computers through encryption and then demands money to restore access.While information technology (IT) experts speculated that ransomware cases would increase last year after dominating cyberspace discussions in 2017 with high-profile worldwide outbreaks such as WannaCrypt and Petya, these fears failed to materialise.Source

While ASEAN is increasingly coordinating its efforts to reinforce regional cybersecurity, more needs to be done to address the constantly evolving threats.Data fraud/theft and cyberattacks were the fourth and fifth biggest threats facing the world according to the nearly 1,000 decision-makers surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in this year’s Global Risks Report, and it is clear that stakeholders in the public and private sector as well as academia and civil society should intensify ef