FortiGuard Labs on Friday warned the Philippines of a holiday-season surge in cybercrime led by online shopping and electronic payments and projected that by 2027 cybercrime will reach near-industrial scale, according to its 2026 Cyberthreat Predictions Report.
The study noted a shift in attacker strategy from innovation to speed, with AI systems and semi-autonomous agents compressing the time between intrusion and impact from days to minutes.
“The findings clearly show that cybercrime is no longer an opportunistic activity; it is an industrialized system operating at machine speed,” said Jonas Walker, FortiGuard Labs director of threat intelligence APAC and Middle East.
AI is predicted to handle reconnaissance, intrusion, data parsing and ransom negotiations, enabling cybercriminal groups to run multiple campaigns simultaneously.
Fortinet Philippines country manager Bambi Escalante said the extended holiday season, beginning each September, contributes to a surge in cyberattacks.
Escalante urged organizations and consumers to stay informed and vigilant about their shopping and spending habits to avoid falling victim to scams.
“For businesses and organizations here in the Philippines, the realities of cyber crises are not just one big crisis that once they happen, it’s done. On the contrary, cyber risk is constant,” Escalante said.
By 2027, FortiGuard Labs expects agentic, swarm-like AI models to coordinate attacks and adapt to defenses, alongside more sophisticated supply-chain attacks on AI and embedded systems.
The underground economy is also expected to become more structured, with tailored botnet rentals, credential markets and automated escrow systems resembling legitimate marketplaces.
“As automation, specialization and AI redefine every stage of the attack lifecycle, the time between compromise and consequence continues to collapse. The road ahead will be shaped by how quickly defenders can adapt to this reality,” Walker said.
The report noted that defenders should operate at “machine speed,” leveraging continuous threat exposure management, automated validation and identity-based controls, not only for human users but also for AI agents and machine-to-machine processes.
Effective defense will depend on combining predictive intelligence, automation and human expertise, it said.
