The Philippines is the top country globally for botnet detections, with nearly four times as many detections as the second ranked country, Indonesia, according to Malwarebytes‘ inaugural Asia Pacific State of Malware Report 2017.
Asia Pacific topped the chart of botnet detections globally, accounting for more than 50% of botnet detections. Emerging markets in the region responsible for the majority of botnet detections, with developed countries accounting for less than 0.5% of global botnet detections.
There are three APAC countries among the top five countries for botnet detections globally, with five among the top ten. The countries listed in order from most incidences to least are the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Thailand and Malaysia.
The five APAC countries ranked in the top 10 accounted for nearly half of botnet detections overall.
Mobile malware is getting smarter
The study also observed increased use of randomization utilized by malware authors to evade detection by mobile security engines, leading to increased malware infection rates amongst android devices globally.
Android malware is particularly rampant in Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Malaysia.
Three Asia countries (Indonesia, India and Philippines) made the top 10 for Android malware detections globally, accounting for more than 15% of Android malware detections in total.
The high prevalence of Android malware detections in these countries can be attributed to the extensive use of relatively unsecured third-party app stores amongst consumers.
Risky online banking
The Philippines and Thailand accounted for a disproportionately large amount of banking Trojan malware detections. The two countries combined accounted for more than 20% of global banking Trojan detections. The Philippines in particular boasted nearly twice as many detections as the second ranked country, Thailand.
