UN warns: Southeast Asia is becoming a centre of cybercrime - up to $37 billion in 2023 alone to attackers

Cybercrime is on the rise and is attacking both large companies and ordinary users, extorting money from them in a variety of ways.

A new UN report reveals the extent of the problem and draws attention to the current situation.

Here's What We Know

The UN Office on Combating Drug Trafficking and Crime stated that the activity of cybercriminals from Southeast Asia has increased significantly in recent years.

According to their information, in 2023 alone, fraudsters from the Web have illegally received from 18 to 37 billion US dollars!

Experts are sounding the alarm and claim that never before has such a level of cybercrime been recorded in the Asian region.

Since 2020 (with the onset of the pandemic), poor countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have become the centres of cybercrime syndicates. Attackers are showing amazing ingenuity, cunning and brazenness. They steal identities, hack servers, blackmail people, cheat through dating services, use gambling, create fake pages, scam people with phone scams and other schemes.

Cybercriminals use state-of-the-art technology, including generative AI, dipfakes, malware, and cryptocurrencies and transnational money transfers to launder money.

We urge you to be extremely distrustful of any unexpected offers online, do not publish any personal data, observe information hygiene and do not click on dubious links. And most importantly, tell your elderly relatives and underage children about the dangers of the Web, so that they do not become victims of cybercriminals.

Source: Bloomberg