Malaysia ranks tenth among countries targeted by spam emails

Kaspersky saw an increase of 18 million malicious email attachments in 2022 compared to the previous year, with the most triggers occurring in March, May, and June. Malaysia was at 2.62% in 2021 and the number went up to almost reaching 3% in 2022.

Malicious emails were sent to Malaysian users disguised as business correspondence. Cybercriminals will try to persuade the recipient to open the attachment by claiming that the content is business-related, such as commercial offers, invoices, or bank transfer slips.

The trojan is usually loaded when a malicious document is opened. Sometimes it is difficult to recognize what is genuine and what is a phishing attempt. 

Based on the data gathered by Kaspersky, majority of phishing pages were hosted in the .com domain zone, and generally associated with entertainment content, which is perhaps what attracted victims to it. 

According to Chris Connell, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky, scams promising compensation and payouts from government agencies, large corporations, and banks are likely to remain popular among cybercriminals in 2023. 

“Data from our Kaspersky Secure Network (KSN) also tells us that the web threats in Malaysia in the past five years are actually on the downward trend. But that does not mean, we should put our guard down. Cybercriminals are becoming more creative to lure victims hence protection on our devices is essential,” says Connell. 

37.1 million web threats in 2022

Spam made up 48.63% of all emails worldwide, and Kaspersky Mail Anti-Virus stopped 507 million phishing links and 166 million dangerous email attachments. KSN reported that Malaysia experienced highest web threats in 2021, at 61.3 million, and then came down to 37.1 million last year. 

The Communications and Digital Ministry has emphasised the importance of cybersecurity for state governments and government agencies; this is a step in the right direction towards a safer Malaysia.

Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997, is eager to collaborate and share knowledge with Malaysia’s public and private sectors in order to secure more Malaysians and businesses.