A new global financial‑sector threat report from Check Point Exposure Management Research reveals that Asia‑Pacific institutions are under growing and geopolitically‑charged pressure, as cyberattacks surged worldwide from 864 in 2024 to 1,858 in 2025. APAC emerged as one of the most strategically targeted regions, with sustained activity across India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the broader Southeast Asian market, spanning data breaches, DDoS, ransomware, defacement, mobile trojans, and emerging AI-powered fraud.
Key APAC‑Relevant Numbers
- Data Breach & Leak attacks: India ranks second globally with 31 incidents, Indonesia third with 24.
- Ransomware: South Korea is the second most targeted country worldwide, with 31 incidents. Japan recorded 9, India 10, Malaysia 10.
- DDoS: India recorded 31 DDoS attacks, with attackers increasingly targeting digital banking portals and government‑linked financial ecosystems.
- Defacement: India saw 36 attacks, ranking second globally behind the U.S, with Indonesia (8), Japan (3) and other South-East Asia markets taking sustained opportunistic hits.
APAC Becomes the Frontline of High-Velocity Cybercrime
Regions with large digital populations and expanding mobile – first fintech ecosystems with super apps such as India, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, makes the region disproportionately exposed to credential theft, mobile malware and AI-powered scam operations. Mobile banking trojans like Herodotus were targeting users across Japan, South Korea, India and Indonesia whilst regionally, AI-driven investment scams, and Phishing-as-a-Service (Spiderman campaign) scaled rapidly across multi-lingual APAC communities.
The mix of hacktivism (DDoS, defacement), financially motivated ransomware, and expanding phishing infrastructure indicates APAC is being hit from multiple fronts simultaneously.
Organizations must strengthen identity governance, mobile‑banking defenses, fraud‑detection capabilities and leverage exposure management to unify threat intelligence, attack-surface visibility, exploitability context and safe automated remediation, as APAC becomes a testing ground for high‑volume and high‑velocity attacks.
Said Shir Atzil, Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst, Check Point Exposure Management Research :
“APAC’s rapid digital growth has made it one of the most actively targeted regions, with India, Indonesia, South Korea and Southeast Asia sitting at the crossroads of hacktivism, financial crime and emerging AI‑driven fraud. The path forward is clear: financial institutions must adopt intelligence‑led defenses that address mobile threats, identity abuse and cross‑border attack campaigns before they scale.”
