Cyber criminals are targeting vulnerable Malaysian servers

The number of malware attacks targeting vulnerable servers in Malaysia has significantly increased to 150% in Q2 of 2021, said cybersecurity company Kaspersky.

According to fresh data from Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), cybercriminals has utilized the servers located in Malaysia to the launch online threats.

According to the statement, attacks triggered by Malaysian servers which recorded 204,313 incidents from January to March ballooned to an alarming rate of 150% uptick with 512,014 incidents.

Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky said it is important to include cybersecurity in the development of data centers in Malaysia’s digitalization drive.

“This will be beneficial for the country’s people and economy, but it is important to also include cybersecurity in this development. It is clear that cybercriminals are aware of the country’s move to be the next digital hub in the region, hence now is the best time to equip servers and systems with holistic cyber defenses,” Yeo said.

The report also added that 28,931,223 unique internet-borne cyberthreats were detected on computers in the second quarter of 2021. This is 10 million more compared with the attacks blocked during the first three months of 2021.

While the local threats data showed a 36.5% reduction from 13,351,628 recorded in the first quarter to 8,475,567 in the second quarter of 2021. This is due to most companies being closed due to the continuing pandemic situation in Malaysia,

In many cases, malware attempts through removable USB drives, CDs and DVDs and other ‘offline’ methods were observed between the first and the second quarter of 2021.

These infection attempts are often used by cybercriminals to penetrate systems. Such attacks usually take place when users visit infected websites.

The most dangerous is the fileless malware which can be extremely difficult to detect and remove. Its malicious code uses registry or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) subscriptions for persistence, leaving no single object for static analysis on the disk.