Kaspersky: 72% of Southeast Asians encountered at least one digital payment threat

Kaspersky’s latest cybersecurity report (Download link here) found that 72 per cent of Southeast Asian users encountered at least one cyber threat related to digital payments.

Among the report’s 1,615 regional respondents (Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam), 52 per cent admitted losing money due to bank account and credit card fraud. So, it’s not like these perceived threats are benign.

The Kaspersky report further showed that Singaporeans are most likely to encounter a social engineering scam (32 per cent). Here’s an old article of ours that explains how social engineering scams work if you need a reminder.

“The adoption of digital payment methods appears to be a double-edged sword, with convenience representing the good benefits and cyber security risks being the less desirable aspects of it. On the contrary, we believe that categorising digital payments in such binary ways is premature.

As with any emerging technologies, there is no inherent good or bad characteristic to them; rather, how we use them to achieve beneficial outcomes is determined by how we interact with them.

If we are to realise the benefits of digital payments fully, it is important that all stakeholders, including the government, digital payment providers, users, and even cyber security firms, work together to build a stable, secure, and future-proof payments ecosystem,” says Sandra Lee, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky.

Here are some quick tips on safeguarding yourself against digital payment threats, courtesy of Kaspersky:

• Beware of fake communications, and adopt a cautious approach towards digital payments.
• Do not readily share financial and private information when online.
• Use your own computer, device, and your own Internet connection to make payments. Public devices may have spyware and public Internet access can be intercepted more easily than private ones.
• Do not share passwords, PINs, or one-time passwords with anyone. You should only use your accounts, and no one else's.
• If needed, use professional and premium cybersecurity tools to protect yourself further (like these ones you can find on Lazada, for instance).

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.