ISTANBUL 

Cyberattacks are very damaging, and on average, the financial losses from a successful cyberattack amount to $1 million for large enterprises, Kaspersky’s chief executive officer (CEO) said Thursday. 

The figure is approximately $100,000 for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Eugene Kaspersky said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

"About two thirds of attacks are financially motivated, but attacks influenced by geopolitics are also as prominent as ever," he said, adding another threat to worry about is continuing data breaches and leaks, which leave users vulnerable.

Cryptominer attacks were also on the rise in the first quarter of 2022. Kaspersky detected 21.5% more such attacks than in the reporting period last year, he said.

Cybersecurity on rise in Türkiye

Kaspersky pointed out that all across Türkiye, awareness on cybersecurity is rising.

"It is hope-inspiring to see that the country has a very high population of young people who are interested in technology and can form this team of cybersecurity professionals," he said.

Türkiye, like any country, is constantly vulnerable to social engineering and phishing attacks in addition to exposure from vulnerable computer systems, he said, adding attackers usually exploit these issues and take advantage of them to steal money and sensitive information.

This increase is due to the fact that cryptocurrency prices have increased and will likely maintain high values this year, he underlined.

"Cybercriminals will try to exploit users and use their computer resources to perform cryptomining," he added.

Also, the Middle East, Türkiye and Africa (META) region has always been a hotbed of advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks, he said.

"So far, the main driver for conducting cyber-espionage by APTs in Türkiye remains geopolitics. Among the most targeted industries are the government and public sector, the diplomatic field, defense and education.”

Over the past few years, due to a boom in digital currency, there has been a noticeable increase in cryptocurrency-related phishing scams, he said.

"While in 2021, our products detected and prevented over 460,000 crypto-related phishing attacks overall, our researchers reported over 193,000 crypto-related phishing attempts in 2022 (over the January-May period)."

*Writing and contributions by Aysu Bicer in Ankara