With 46% of the events, the manufacturing sector in Asia-Pacific is the most targeted industry for the second consecutive year, according to IBM's 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index. Asia Pacific outpaced Europe in 2023, accounting for 63% of assaults on transportation firms worldwide, despite Europe having the highest percentage of attacks on the sector the year before. Notably, the report also revealed that, with 23% of events reacted to worldwide, Asia-Pacific was the third most targeted region in 2023.

The most frequent first access vectors seen in the area for 2023, according to IBM X-Force, IBM Consulting's offensive and defensive security services division, were phishing and the exploitation of public-facing apps. Notwithstanding the surge in identity-based attacks that have surfaced worldwide, businesses in the region ought to exercise caution and concentrate on fortifying their user access restrictions, as cybercriminals see more prospects to “log in” instead of breaching corporate networks via legitimate accounts.

Based on observations and insights from tracking more than 150 billion security events daily across more than 130 nations, the X-Force Threat Intelligence Index was created. Furthermore, information is collected and examined from other IBM sources, such as IBM Managed Security Services, Incident Response, X-Force Red, IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence, and data from Red Hat Insights and Intezer, which were included in the 2024 study.

At the industrial level, the manufacturing sector received the highest degree of targeting in the region (46%) followed by the banking and insurance, transportation, and education sectors, which tied for second place with 12% of instances apiece.

With 36% of events in 2023, phishing remained the most common initial access vector in the area. Closely behind at 35% were attacks involving the exploitation of public-facing apps. Eleven percent of the instances detected were produced via the use of legitimate accounts, abusing trusted relationships, and replicating using portable media, all of which tied for third place.

Once more, malware accounted for 45% of attacks in Asia-Pacific, making it the most often reported activity. Infostealers came in second with 10% of the events, while ransomware accounted for 17% of them. In 2023, backdoors accounted for just 3% of incidents, compared to 31% in 2022.

Data theft and brand reputation were the two most frequent effects of assaults on the region, accounting for 27% of all attacks. Following, extortion, data destruction, and data leakage represented for twenty percent of occurrences.