SOUTHEAST ASIA AND GROWING CHALLENGE OF CYBER-ATTACKS

Southeast Asia is the one of fastest-rising internet marketplace internationally, with its digital economy predictable to extent a gross merchandise worth of more than $500 billion by 2030. However, this fast digital growth has also activated an important growth in cybercrime, which augmented by 85 per cent from 2020 to 2024. This upwelling emphasizes the serious necessity to identify cyber-attacks, mainly directing the under banked population, who are particularly at threat due to least digital knowledge and their dependence on familiar business services. In user surveys, most of the respondents reported cyber-targets weekly across Southeast Asian countries (i.e. Indonesia Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand). The amount totalling of 225 million in 2023, are mainly unprotected to cyber risks due to partial digital knowledge and reliance on uncertain monetary services with lowest entry hurdles. This paper finds that establishing cyber security, improving monetary knowledge, and nurturing regional partnership are important stages to safeguard these susceptible groups from the rising cyber threat to the nations of the region.