Malaysia experienced 57.8 million virus cyber-attacks in Q1: Fortinet

A report from Fortinet, Malaysia had 57.8 million virus assaults in total during the first quarter of 2022 (Q1 2022), or 1.14 percent of all cyberattacks worldwide. 

According to Jonas Walker of Fortiguard Labs at Fortinet, 1.19 percent of all threats worldwide are represented by the 57.2 million botnets that have been identified in the nation.

3.96 billion assaults were detected using Malaysian exploits in Q1 2022, which equates to 0.95 percent of all worldwide detections.

“A virus attack is something like a file which needs to be executed in a website or gets downloaded into your system, while an exploit is just a simple command that can be used against the system connected to the Internet. 

“Botnet is a malware attack similar to a virus which is installed in the system and waiting for a command or control server to send certain actions,” he said at a media briefing today. 

According to Walker, the trends of cyber attacks are increasing in Malaysia as the threat actors are continuously scanning and immediately adapting to the latest development around the globe. 

“They are monitoring very closely what is happening in the real world which you might be interested in, and try to put this information into a phishing campaign to get your attention,” he added. 

Fortinet, the global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, today released the Asia findings of the 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report that revealed the skill shortage in organisations around the continent. 

Fortinet Asia vice-president of marketing and communication Rashish Pandey said Southeast Asia and Hong Kong survey shows that 71 percent of the participating companies are facing difficulty in hiring technology-qualified talents for cybersecurity. 

“Sixty-three percent of them agree that skill shortage results in severe cybersecurity consequences for the business,” he said. 

The report which surveyed IT and cybersecurity decision-makers across countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Indonesia suggests ways the skill gap can be addressed through training and certifications to increase employees’ education. 

Pandey noted that Fortinet is committed to addressing the skill gap and has pledged to train one million professionals by 2026 with the establishment of Fortinet’s Training Advancement Agenda and Training Institute programmes.