Phl among most vulnerable to cybercrime attacks

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines ranks among the most vulnerable to cybercrime attacks in the Asia Pacific region as roughly half of computers sold in the country have been invaded by malware, a study by global tech giant Microsoft said.

Malware is a general term referring to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software. Also known as badware,  it is applied to both true (malicious) malware and unintentionally harmful software.

The Microsoft study noted that the Philippines is the leading country in all types of malware, including worms, miscellaneous Trojans, viruses, exploits, Trojan downloaders and droppers, password stealers and monitoring tools.

Microsoft Asia chief security officer Pierre G. Noel also said critical infrastructure such as utilities, transport and finance are at risk of cybercrime attacks.

“Cybercrime attacks from criminal groups, like the Triad or the Mafia, is motivated by money, large amounts of it,” he said.

That places the country in a very precarious situation since it relies heavily on remittances from overseas Filipinos, revenues from the business process outsourcing (BPO), and the globalization of its financial sector.

BPOs have a large number of corporate clients, which in turn have thousands of individual clients. Big-time cybercriminals have the ability, for example, to access critical information of the corporate accounts as well as the individual clients.

“There are cybercriminals who collect the data, and sell them to interested parties for a price,” he told reporters yesterday.

The rates  go far as low as $1 for every 100 stolen Twitter accounts, or one US cent for every stolen address. The rates go higher and higher, and pricing gets more complicated depending on the prospective value of information.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco was a victim of cybercrime in August 2012 wherein its internal computer network shut down after it experienced a malware attack affecting its oil production and distribution.

Global financial institutions, such as Citi NA and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC), use BPOs (owned or outsourced) to settle claims and other credit card issues.

Overseas Filipinos send money to their relatives in the Philippines through the Internet, some through their credit cards, and some through their automated teller machine (ATM) cards.

Cybercrime is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. This includes anything from downloading illegal music files to stealing millions of dollars from online bank accounts. It also includes non-monetary offenses, such as creating and distributing viruses on other computers or posting confidential business information on the Internet.

Identity theft steals the personal information of other Internet users. Two common ways used for identity theft is through phishing and pharming. Both of these methods lure users to fake websites (that appear to be legitimate), where they are asked to enter personal information.

This includes login information, such as usernames and passwords, phone numbers, addresses, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and other information criminals can use to “steal” another person’s identity.