Holiday spenders exposed to online fraud, cyberattack

Holiday shoppers and companies taking advantage of the traditional holiday spending are being warned of possible cyber-attacks or online fraud, according to a cyber-security company.

Fortinet, a cyber-networking and security firm, said in a recent seminar the ongoing increased spending and remittances are creating subtle opportunities for cyberattacks.

Bambi Escalante, Fortinet country manager for the Philippines, said Filipinos are particularly vulnerable due to rise in remittances from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) some of whom choose to fly home to celebrate the holidays with their families.

Escalante said, “This holiday season is when there would be a lot of financial transactions, such as remittances from OFWs, buying gifts, online purchases, online transactions … I’m sure there will be a resurgence of online scams again.”

Escalante added the expected suspension of work over the holidays expose businesses to cyberattacks.

“People take vacations, or network freezes, and nobody’s manning the data center or the network or looking at what’s happening. The cyber criminals can just attack any industry,” she warned.

According to Jonas Walker, director of threat intelligence for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at Fortinet, cybercrimes are growing more sophisticated and specialized.

Walker explained, artificial intelligence is lowering the barrier for launching attacks. The technology even prompts malicious actors to develop their own AI models.

Fortinet predicts that by 2026, cybercrime will evolve into an organized industry comparable in scale to global sectors.

“Cybercrime is no longer an opportunistic activity. It is an industrialized system operating at machine speed, as automation, specialization and AI redefine every stage of the attack lifecycle,” Walker said.

“Cybersecurity has become a race of systems, not individuals, and organizations will need integrated intelligence, continuous validation and real-time response to stay ahead of adversaries who measure success by throughput, not novelty,” he added.