Australia is facing a higher rate of cyber threats, with attacks across the Asia-Pacific region 60% higher than the global average, according to Check Point’s Threat Intelligence data.
The global increase in sophisticated cyberattacks, fuelled by ransomware, hacktivism, and AI-driven cybercrime, has left organizations in APAC particularly vulnerable.
The region faced 2,915 attacks per week over the last six months, significantly higher than the global average of 1,843 attacks per week, according to Check Point’s data.
Phishing emails are becoming more targeted, ransomware attacks now include second- and third-order effects, targeting data owners and stealing credentials, and AI-driven cybercrime is on the rise.
“It really poses a significant challenge for the people responsible for protecting data and applications, assets and networks,” said Ruma Balasubramanian, president, APAC & Japan, at Check Point.
Regional numbers show areas of greatest threat
One of the biggest concerns is the rapid evolution of phishing scams, which have become more sophisticated due to generative AI. Attackers are not only targeting individuals but also leveraging AI to craft highly convincing phishing emails.
“Phishing emails are much more sophisticated today than they were even six months ago, and we're going to continue to see that develop with generative AI,” said Balasubramanian.
Across the region, ransomware attacks reached 6.3% of all cyber incidents, compared to 4% globally, marking an alarming increase. Additionally, ransomware attacks are evolving beyond simple data encryption — criminals are now focusing on data owners, using stolen credentials to escalate attacks.
“It’s much more sophisticated than what we've seen over the past year or two,” she told IT Wire.
The region has also seen a rise in web-based attacks, with 52% of malicious files delivered via web-based attacks in the last 30 days, highlighting a sharp rise in phishing scams.
AI is enabling attackers to improve their attack methods and organisations and cybersecurity outfits must now continually evolve their strategies and fortify their defences.
“The threats that we typically know about — phishing, ransomware, info stealers — they end up being much more severe and operate at scale in an AI-rich environment that we have here in the Asia-Pacific region,” she said.
The most targeted sectors across the region included education and research, healthcare and government, all seeing higher attacks per organisation that global averages.
The government late last year enacted a package of legislation in response to the heightened cyber threat environment, including new security standards, mandatory ransomware reporting for certain businesses and establish a new Cyber Incident Review Board.
Balasubramanian praised the Australian government’s approach to strengthening the country’s cybersecurity regulations and going further to include an enforcement regime.
“We see many governments across the world putting in place regulations like that, but not necessarily having the enforcement. Australia has done a very good job with that,” she said.
The company is monitoring new cybersecurity requirements, particularly as they relate to financial services and public sector organisations, and helping customers comply with new regulations.
"Our business in Australia is really significant to us. It’s a strategic market, not just across the region, but globally, and you’ll see a lot of activity and investment going into Australia,” she said.
Regional investment in cybersecurity R&D
Check Point recently announced its first Asia-Pacific research and development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru, India, the second-largest global facility, following its headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The site will be integral to its Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) network, an area of strategic growth, enabling enterprise-scale, elastic growth while expanding its full mesh architecture, currently spanning more than 80 global points of presence (PoPs).
“CIOs, CTOs and CISOs are dealing with the level of complexity that involves both on-prem infrastructure as well as movement of their data and applications to one or more hyperscalers, and that’s posing some significant challenges in terms of data and application security, as well as cloud network security.”
Check Point expect the centre will play a critical role in AI-driven threat prevention, security management enhancements, and next-generation cyber defense development
“It’s expanding our footprint but also laying the foundation for cutting-edge security innovations that will benefit customers worldwide,” said Balasubramanian.