A new INTERPOL cyberthreat assessment report says cybercrime has risen sharply across Asia and the South Pacific, with phishing now the most widespread and financially damaging threat and more than half of member countries saying cybercrime made up at least 30% of recorded crime from January 2024 through March 2025.
KEY FACTS
- Phishing more than a third of countries reported over 10,000 cases in the period covered.
- Ransomware the region saw more than 135,000 related attacks in 2024.
- Deepfakes scams used AI personas to impersonate executives and drive fraudulent payments.
- DDoS attacks increased 92% in 2024 from the previous year.
The report says rapid digitalization, rising internet use, new technologies and uneven cybersecurity maturity are helping drive the increase. It also says organized criminal groups have industrialized scam operations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines.
INTERPOL said those networks have set up large scam centers that use forced labor to run investment frauds and romance baiting schemes aimed at victims around the world. The report said organized crime in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos used deepfakes in such scams, contributing to $37 billion in regional cybercrime losses.
Banking trojans and information stealers were the second most common type of cybercrime. The report also said system intrusions accounted for about 80% of all data breaches in 2024, while weak encryption, insecure APIs and poor monitoring remained common paths into target networks.
Officials said law enforcement agencies across the region are expanding joint operations, investigations and training with support from INTERPOL. The report also noted that ransomware groups increasingly use companies’ regulatory obligations to intensify pressure during extortion attempts.
WHY IT MATTERS
The findings point to a cybercrime threat that is becoming more industrialized and harder to stop, especially as scam groups use AI tools and cross-border infrastructure. The scale of phishing, ransomware and data breaches suggests regional defenses are being outpaced in several sectors.