Africa And Southeast Asia Are Most Prone To Cyber Attacks On Industrial Computers

Illustration (photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The latest Kaspersky ICS CERT (Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team) data states that in Q1 2025, 21.9% of industrial computers worldwide were detected to contain malware.

Geographically, Africa became the most vulnerable region with 29.6%, followed by Southeast Asia with 29.1%, Central Asia (24.2%), the Middle East (24.1%), and Eastern Europe (21.8%).

Meanwhile, the region with the lowest threat level was Northern Europe (10.7%), followed by Western Europe (11.8%) and Australia & New Zealand (13.9%).

This report also reveals the sectors most affected, including:

Biometric: 28.1% of detected computers contain malicious objects

As for sources of threat, the internet is still the main pathway for the spread of malware to industrial systems, with 10.11% of computers infected via online networks. Followed by email (2.81%) and USB devices or other external media (0.52%).

The main categories of threats from the internet are internet resources that are blacklisted, malicious scripts, and phishing pages, said Evgeny Goncharov, Head of Kaspersky ICS CERT.

He also said that the increasing internet-based attacks on the industrial control system highlight the important need for advanced threat detection to fight advanced malware campaigns.