Cyber threats across the Philippines are growing not only in volume but also in sophistication, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by malicious actors.
This is according to a new survey by IDC commissioned by Fortinet, a global cybersecurity leader, which found that Philippine organizations are increasingly exposed to stealthier, more coordinated cyberattacks.
The survey revealed that 78 percent of organizations in the country encountered AI-powered threats over the past year, with 64 percent reporting a twofold increase in incidents and 28 percent seeing a threefold spike.
The AI-enabled threats include deepfake impersonations in business email compromise (BEC), AI-enhanced social engineering, adversarial AI and data poisoning, automated reconnaissance and polymorphic malware.
“Complexity is now the new battleground in cybersecurity, and AI is both the challenge and the frontline defense,” said Fortinet Philippines country head Bambi Escalante.
Despite the growing threat landscape, only 9 percent of local organizations say they are very confident in their ability to counter AI-enabled attacks.
Twenty-seven percent admitted that these threats are already outpacing their detection capabilities, while 19 percent reported having no ability to monitor AI threats at all—exposing a significant preparedness gap.
The report showed that traditional cyber threats remain widespread, with ransomware at 66 percent, software supply chain attacks at 62 percent, cloud vulnerabilities at 58 percent, insider threats at 56 percent and phishing at 50 percent.
Escalante said it is the quieter, more complex threats such as unpatched and zero-day exploits, insider attacks and cloud misconfigurations that are more dangerous due to their ability to evade conventional defenses.
While phishing and malware continue to grow at a modest rate of around 10 percent, more sophisticated threats are escalating faster, she said.
Supply chain attacks are up 16 percent, IoT/OT incidents by 14 percent and both insider threats and cloud breaches by 12 percent.
“As threats grow quieter and more coordinated, Fortinet is helping organizations across the Philippines stay ahead with a unified, platform-based approach that brings together visibility, automation, and resilience. In today’s threat environment, speed, simplicity, and strategy matter more than ever,” Escalante said.
