Whenever there is opportunity, there lurks danger

It should come as no surprise that the people of the Asia Pacific region have quickly become the world’s leading consumers of technology.

This phenomenon is supported by the rapid rise of smartphone adoption and access to high-speed 4G mobile phone connections, causing a growing addiction to social media and e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Amazon.

According to KPMG, Asia’s digital consumers are currently leading the globe with an average of 22.1 transactions per year per person as opposed to 19 transactions a year by the average North American.

In terms of mobile phone adoption, the region has seen unprecedented growth in recent years. For instance, in 2017 Asia saw 319 million new mobile phone connections, compared to Europe’s five million new mobile connections during the same year.

In that same year, the APAC region also saw 77 per cent of connected consumers making their purchases on mobile, compared to just 24 per cent in Europe.

Singapore has emerged as a central hub for technology in the region, attracting the world’s biggest tech brands and establishing itself as a world-class destination for companies looking to access markets in the region. Today 80 of the world’s biggest 100 tech firms have offices or operations in Singapore, pushing her global ranking under the 2017 Bloomberg Innovation Index to number 6, ahead of Japan and China.

Also Read: TheLorry raises funding from Unilever, plans to scale Southeast Asia

Technology is transforming the Asia region socially, culturally and economically at a rapid pace – but this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

The challenges of technology adoption in the region and the shift toward becoming the world’s leading digital consumer society comes with huge risks, namely the threat of cybercrime and hacking.

According to the 2017 State of Malware Report, while cybercriminals were still largely focused on the Europe and North America regions, Asia’s online ecosystem will soon entice opportunists seeking to cash in on the region’s vulnerability. This new shift in dynamic will prove challenging for regional policymakers and businesses tasked with carefully navigating the ever-evolving threats that inevitably come with an entrance into the digital marketplace.

In 2017, 46.2 million Malaysian cellphone accounts had personal data stolen by hackers who raided government servers. Given the population of Malaysia at the time was 31.2 million, the impact was monumental, to say the least.

Among other personal data, roughly 80,000 medical records were captured during the spree. In more recent news, a North Korean hacking collective has been caught operating computer-borne attacks against regional cryptocurrency exchanges and digital banking startups, then using those captured funds to support the country’s controversial nuclear missile program.

This state-sponsored hacking group known as APT37 have mostly focused on South Korean targets, human rights groups and North Korean defectors, using a range of advanced hacking techniques to embed malware on victims’ computers.

What is worrying is that this is just the beginning – Asia’s online commerce ecosystem is only just getting started.

While several years’ ago it would have been an odd sight to spot a commuter on a train in Asia using a smartphone, today one would be hard pressed to find someone not watching a video game, checking their social media account or shopping online while commuting.

The people are ready and have been for some time, to become the world’s leading users of mobile technology. And this can be seen in the investment we are seeing in the region, with funding for South-East Asian tech startups alone more than tripling in 2017 to almost US$8 billion, boosting the digital economy by more than 60 per cent in the same year alone.

In fact, leading experts believe that its economy will grow to a staggering US$240 billion by 2025.

Cybersecurity concerns will only increase in the coming decade, but thankfully most economies in the region (namely, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore) have already adopted – or if not, have been building — national cybersecurity strategies and updating existing cybercrime laws to combat the increasing severity of cyber-attacks.

Also Read: RHL Ventures launches US$24.3M sector-agnostic fund to invest in Malaysian startups, SMEs

In fact, in 2014 APAC-based companies spent more on protecting themselves from cybersecurity breaches than those in any other region of the world, according to a study conducted by International Data Corporation and the National University of Singapore. These strategies, supported by each country’s legal and operational frameworks, will help regional powers navigate the risks brought on by financial crime – but as hackers get increasingly smart about the ways they infiltrate the cyberspace, will it be enough?

The best way Asia’s consumers can protect themselves is through education, it seems.

According to ESET’s Asia Cyber-Savviness Report, a worrying 78 per cent of the region’s internet users have received zero education on cybersecurity, making them less likely to invest in security products or respond quickly and appropriately to digital security breaches.

In the coming five years perhaps, this is where governments should consider focusing their efforts. By ensuring cybersecurity awareness is given greater priority in tech startups and among consumers in the Asia Pacific region, its governments and its consumers might just be able to mitigate the damaging impacts of cybersecurity breaches.

—

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

The post Will Asia’s booming digital economy lead to an inevitable rise in cybercrime? appeared first on e27.