Pakistan ranks among safest in META region for web-based threats, says expert

PHUKET: Pakistan is increasingly prioritising cybersecurity, with notable investments across the government, defence and private sectors aimed at safeguarding data and digital infrastructure. As a result, Pakistan recorded the second-lowest proportion of users targeted by web-based threats in the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) region during the first quarter of 2025 -- just 12.1 per cent, compared to Saudi Arabia’s 11 per cent.

This was revealed by Sergey Lozhkin, head of the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and META regions at Kaspersky, in an interview with The News on the sidelines of the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend held in Phuket on Friday.

Kaspersky’s GReAT team presented key cybersecurity trends, including ransomware, advanced persistent threats (APTs), supply chain attacks, mobile vulnerabilities, artificial intelligence (AI) and developments in the Internet of Things (IoT).

Across the broader META region, Turkiye and Kenya experienced the highest share of users affected by online threats, followed by Qatar, Nigeria and South Africa.

Lozhkin noted that APTs often exploit zero-day vulnerabilities -- undisclosed or unpatched flaws in systems that provide attackers with a window to embed malicious tools. “A zero-day is when a security update or patch is missing. Attackers exploit this period to deploy APTs undetected,” he explained.

Maher Yamout, lead security researcher at Kaspersky’s GReAT team, added that Pakistan witnessed seven APT campaigns in 2024, making it the second most targeted country in the META region. These included high-profile campaigns, many of which are believed to be state-sponsored, often targeting government, defence and financial institutions. “These campaigns can be traced to specific countries, allowing us to identify their likely origin,” Yamout said.

Kaspersky continues to track 25 active APT groups in the META region. The company has observed a rise in mobile-based exploits and increasingly sophisticated techniques designed to evade detection.

Ransomware remains one of the most destructive cyberthreats. Globally, the share of users affected by ransomware increased slightly from 0.42 per cent in 2023 to 0.44 per cent in 2024. In the Middle East, the growth was more pronounced -- up 0.07 percentage points to 0.72 per cent. Africa also saw a modest increase of 0.01 percentage points to 0.41 per cent. Although attackers tend to target high-value victims rather than deploying ransomware at scale, Kaspersky warned the threat remains potent. “The numbers may not be surging, but that doesn’t make ransomware any less dangerous,” one official noted.