According to a study by cybersecurity giant Kaspersky, its anti-phishing system blocked a total of 12,127,692 malicious links in Southeast Asia in the first half of 2022 — exceeding last year's total by over a million in just six months. More than half of these were targeting Kaspersky users in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. As a result, regulators, including the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), have been implementing more robust digital banking security measures.

Phishing attacks pointed at browser-based applications designed to steal credentials (including logins and passwords for online banking) are one of the top challenges for CIOs in 2023, given the tsunami wave of attacks in 2022.

More than half of the H1 2022 detections were targeting Kaspersky users in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Four out of six countries from SEA – Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam – recorded more phishing emails during the first six months of this 2022 compared to their total number of incidents in 2021.

Three companies have come together in the Asia Pacific region to combat Internet-based attacks, which take advantage of the rise in SaaS (News - Alert) business applications and the constant use of browsers for everything from email to virtual video collaboration, ERP systems, and more.

This week, DefensX, a New York City-based cybersecurity software solution company with a cloud-native platform, announced they have implemented their solutions for Queby Sdn. Bhd, a cybersecurity debt recovery management company. The sale came through Vulsan-X, a systems integrator and value-added managed service provider and DefensX partner in the APAC region.

Located in Malaysia, Queby's mission is to leave no opportunities for recovery untapped, to relieve credit organizations of the complications of debt recovery, and to provide pre- and post- recovery assistance. Queby's management team has extensive experience in the finance, manufacturing, trading debtor management, debt recovery, and legal fields.

"DefensX's zero-trust capabilities, which address the troubling rise in the frequency and intensity of phishing and other social engineering cyber-attacks, enhances Queby's ability to protect their and their client's sensitive data," can be traced to the rising numbers in phishing and other social engineering cyber-attacks," said Dr. Prakash Christiansen, Chief Executive Officer at Vulsan-X. "The DefensX platform also protects Queby's critical infrastructure, defending against attacks that could take down networks, applications, and integrations."

In the past year, there was a 74 percent increase in phishing attacks sent every second, while in general, 98 percent of cyber threats involve some form of social engineering. Statistics like these led Vulsan-X to partner with DefensX and bring a combination of expertise to the APAC region.

Cyber protection capabilities include:

• DNS Security
• Zero-Trust Web Protection
• Zero-Trust Credentials
• Zero-Trust File Protection
• Remote Browser Isolation
• Cyber-Security Training

Queby and other Vulsan-X clients benefit from DefensX's easy installation, allowing users to be up and running with full protection in minutes with a pure cloud that requires no special hardware and works on any device, including smartphones, tablets, and computers.

"We are honored to work with Queby and Vulsan-X to address rapidly growing and increasingly dangerous web-borne threats," said Osman Erkan, DefensX founder and CEO. "We look forward to serving the APAC region while we also expand our customer based in North America, Europe, and the UK in the coming new year."

The cybersecurity market value in the Asian/Pacific region alone is expected to reach $150 billion by 2026, according to Graphical Research.

DefensX protects users from sophisticated cybersecurity attacks by isolating threats before reaching end-point devices, such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Their zero-trust transformational "application to content protection" technology gives an immediate boost to security posture on any device, anywhere, and over any network.

Vulsan-X is a cyber defense organization providing threat intelligence and cyber risk mitigation by providing consulting and enabling technology. Queby's primary mission is to speed up the debt collection, with a proven ability to ensure effective and efficient recovery.