Cyber threats fuelled by artificial intelligence experience a significant increase in the Philippines and Asia Pacific region.
Surging AI-Powered Cyber Threats Pose Significant Risks Across Asia Pacific and the Philippines
Fortinet, a global leader in cybersecurity, recently unveiled findings from an IDC survey revealing a substantial increase in AI-driven cyber threats across the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region. This surge is primarily attributed to the rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence by malicious actors.
In the survey commissioned by Fortinet, it was disclosed that a staggering 78% of Philippine organizations faced AI-enabled cyber threats within the past year. Over 60% of these organizations reported a two- to three-fold escalation in such attacks, encompassing deepfake-influenced business email compromise, adversarial AI, and polymorphic malware.
The report indicated that AI-powered threats are more covert and are often adept at exploiting weaknesses in human behavior, misconfigurations, and identity systems.
Bambi Escalante, Fortinet Philippines country head, emphasized the importance of a unified, platform-based approach to help organizations in the Philippines keep pace with rising threats. This approach incorporates visibility, automation, and resilience.
The survey also identified that only 9% of organizations are extremely self-assured about their capability to counter AI-powered threats, while 19% fail to track them effectively. Additional dangers include ransomware (66%), supply chain attacks (62%), cloud vulnerabilities (58%), and insider threats (56%).
Simon Piff, IDC Asia-Pacific vice president, warned that organizations are grappling with a surge in sophisticated, complex threats. He emphasized that reactive security is no longer adequate, and intelligence-driven, predictive operations should become standard.
Although there are concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities, spending in this area is still lagging. Only 15% of IT budgets are allocated to cybersecurity, with just over 1.4% of total revenue invested. However, 80% of organizations reported a slight increase in budget allocations.
Despite these issues, interest in platform-based convergence between networking and security is on the rise. Fortinet noted that 96% of Philippine organizations are already integrating or evaluating such strategies. Key investment priorities include identity security, Zero Trust, and cloud-native protection.
Rashish Pandey, Fortinet vice president for Marketing and Communications, Asia & ANZ, noted a clear shift in how organizations approach cybersecurity investments as threats become more intricate and coordinated.
The IDC survey polled 550 IT and security leaders across 11 Asia-Pacific markets between February and April 2025.
The surge in AI-powered cyber threats in the Philippines, as revealed by Fortinet's IDC survey, has led to a significant number of Philippine organizations (78%) facing such threats within the past year. Furthermore, over 60% of these organizations reported a two- to three-fold escalation in AI-enabled attacks, including deepfake-influenced business email compromise, adversarial AI, and polymorphic malware.
