High ownership of smartphones and computers increases the threat of ransomware in the Philippines.
Gavin Chow, Fortinet’s network security strategist, says that with smartphones “pushing the boundary to be as powerful as laptops and computers,” they are also “getting to be more interesting as a target” of ransomware.
Ransomware is a malware that infects a computer or mobile device connected to the Internet and executes a cryptovirology attack with an aim of demanding a ransom payment.
“Compared with other countries, the Philippines’ Internet utilization on mobile is huge, bigger than a lot of other Southeast Asian countries,” Chow says in an interview.
He says the Philippines, being the 12th in the world and second in Asia in terms of population, where smartphones are widely used, ransomware can be “a very lucrative business.”
“They are not interested to control your phone. They’re interested in getting money from you,” Chow says.
Ransomware attacks begin with anonymous messages asking for personal information. Having devices infected by ransomware effects encryption and inaccessibility of files and folders. Only by way of compromise will these files be decrypted after payment is made to the developer of the ransomware.
He says through the use of bitcoin and tor networks, which provide anonymization of websites, spreading ransomware becomes easier to operate as “it’s very hard to trace back who is behind the website.”
Chow describes it as an “opportunistic campaign [that] takes advantage of human psychology, and tricking them to give out information [that they could] leverage on.”
In the Security 361° Symposium held on Sept. 1, FortiGuard, Fortinet’s threat intelligence group, reveals that “.jse” is now the most prevalent ransomware in the Philippines.
With the growth of technology, these ransomware attacks could spread to IoT (internet of things) devices such as cars, washing machines, IP cameras and smart home systems.
“The dangers of IoT is, by connecting more devices to the internet, the risk is not just losing your data but it can even cross over to the physical realm,” Chow says.
“The most important thing is education and awareness of the people that these sort of trends actually exist,” Chow says.
He says there are “not-so-complex ways of protecting oneself … even without any sophisticated security software.”