Credential 'cracking' attacks on the rise in Southeast Asia

A brute force attack is a method used by cybercriminals to guess login credentials, encryption keys, or find a hidden website by trying every possible combination of characters until they find the right one. If successful, the attacker can gain access to personal data and important information, install and distribute malware, and even take control of the system to commit other crimes.

Credential-cracking cyberattacks targeting businesses continue to rise in Southeast Asia

From January to June this year, Kaspersky B2B products detected and blocked a total of 23,491,775 attacks using Bruteforce.Generic.RDP. These Kaspersky products are installed and used by businesses of various sizes in the region.

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary Microsoft protocol that provides a graphical interface for users to connect to other computers over a network. RDP is widely used by system administrators and non-technical users to control servers and computers remotely.

Bruteforce.Generic.RDP attacks focus on finding valid login/password pairs by trying all possible character combinations until the correct password is found to access the system. If successful, the attacker will find the correct login/password and gain remote access to the target computer.

With over 8.4 million, 5.7 million and 4.2 million attacks, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand were the three countries with the highest number of RDP attacks in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, Singapore recorded over 1.7 million cases, the Philippines over 2.2 million and Malaysia recorded the least with over 1 million attacks.

“Although bruteforce attacks are an old method , businesses cannot ignore this risk . Bruteforce attacks remain a potential threat to the region, as many organizations and businesses still use weak passwords, creating loopholes for attackers. In addition, the lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA) on RDP connections as well as incorrect RDP configurations also increase the risk of organizations and businesses being attacked by bruteforce,” said Mr. Yeo Siang Tiong, General Superintendent of Kaspersky Southeast Asia.

“Cybercriminals are leveraging AI to automate the process of generating and testing passwords faster and more efficiently, increasing the power of bruteforce attacks,” Yeo added. “Once an attacker has remote access to a corporate computer, the consequences can be devastating. Organizations can suffer data breaches or operational disruptions in the event of a system breach. This can be financially devastating as organizations face costs for downtime, recovery efforts, and even regulatory fines.”