A new cyberthreat assessment published by INTERPOL has highlighted a significant increase in cybercrime activity across Asia and the South Pacific, with phishing attacks, ransomware incidents, and artificial intelligence powered scams emerging as some of the most pressing challenges facing governments, businesses, and individuals. According to INTERPOL’s 2025 to 2026 Asia and South Pacific Cyberthreat Assessment Report, rapid digital transformation, expanding internet access, emerging technologies, organized criminal networks, and uneven levels of cybersecurity maturity have collectively contributed to a more complex and dangerous threat landscape. The report found that cybercrime now represents at least 30 percent of all crimes recorded nationally in more than half of INTERPOL member countries across the region. Phishing remains the most widespread and financially damaging cyber threat, with approximately one third of countries reporting more than 10,000 phishing related incidents between January 2024 and March 2025. INTERPOL officials stated that cybercriminal groups are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence, ransomware as a service platforms, and sophisticated social engineering techniques to conduct operations at scale and target both public and private sector organizations.
The report notes that cybercriminal tactics have evolved considerably, resulting in a sharp rise in ransomware attacks and AI enabled fraud schemes. Across the region, more than 135,000 ransomware related attacks were recorded during 2024, with the real estate, manufacturing, and financial services industries experiencing the highest levels of impact. Criminal groups are increasingly using deepfake technology and artificial intelligence generated content to impersonate company executives and trusted individuals in an effort to authorize fraudulent transactions and deceive victims. Neal Jetton, INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Director, stated that the region’s rapidly evolving cyber threat environment reflects how attackers are combining advanced technologies with traditional fraud techniques to increase the scale and effectiveness of their operations. As organizations continue expanding their digital footprints, INTERPOL emphasized the importance of strengthening operational cooperation, improving information sharing, and enhancing cyber resilience to protect communities, businesses, and critical infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated attacks.
One of the report’s most concerning findings involves the industrialization of cyber enabled fraud operations by transnational organized crime groups operating in countries including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Philippines. According to INTERPOL, these groups have established large scale scam centers that carry out investment fraud and relationship based deception campaigns targeting victims around the world. These operations frequently rely on artificial intelligence generated personas, deepfake technologies, and carefully crafted social engineering tactics to build trust before attempting financial theft. INTERPOL estimates that romance baiting and investment scam operations involving deepfake technology and AI generated identities contributed to approximately $37 billion in cybercrime related losses across the region. The report also highlighted a rise in the misuse of deepfake technology for blackmail, coercion, and sexual exploitation, illustrating how emerging technologies are being adapted for a growing range of criminal activities. Researchers further noted that cybercriminal groups continue to exploit weaknesses such as insecure application programming interfaces, weak encryption, insufficient monitoring, and misconfigured systems to gain unauthorized access to targeted networks and sensitive information.
Beyond phishing and ransomware, the report identified banking trojans and information stealing malware as the second most prevalent cybercrime category in the region. Malware families including RedLine, Lumma, LokiBot, Negasteal, and ZBot were among the most commonly observed threats. Data also showed that approximately 5.5 out of every 1,000 individuals in Asia and the South Pacific clicked phishing links each month, nearly twice the global average of 2.9 per 1,000 users. Distributed denial of service attacks increased by 92 percent during 2024 compared with the previous year, while system intrusions accounted for roughly 80 percent of all reported data breaches. INTERPOL also warned that ransomware operators are increasingly exploiting organizations’ legal and regulatory obligations to intensify extortion efforts and pressure victims into paying demands. In response to the growing threat environment, law enforcement agencies across the region, supported by INTERPOL, have expanded collaborative investigations, coordinated operations targeting cybercriminal infrastructure, specialized training programs, and policy initiatives aimed at improving cybersecurity preparedness and strengthening regional cyber resilience.
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