The acceleration in the digitization pace, fueled by the shifting business landscape, has exposed domestic industries to more cyberattacks, global security firm Fortinet said.

In a roundtable discussion in Makati City on Wednesday, Daniel Kwong, Field Chief Information Security Officer at Fortinet Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, said.

"The Philippines is one of the fastest -growing digital economies in the region, and as digitalization accelerates, the country will face more cyber risks. As the country continues to strengthen its digital transformation initiatives, there is a strong focus on digitizing infrastructure, logistics, and the development of smart cities," he said.

Kwong added: "As these sectors digitize, they will become highly desirable targets for attackers. This reality means that organizations must protect themselves with the right IT and OT infrastructure security architecture and prepare for the digital world."

According to the Fortinet official, industries prone to risks and attacks include manufacturing, water, energy utilities, transportation, healthcare, banking and financial institutions.

Cyberattack threats looming to happen were highlighted in Fortinet's predictions from the FortiGuard Labs global threat intelligence and research team report, focusing on the cyber threat landscape for the next 12 months and beyond.

From quickly evolving Cybercrime-as-a -Service-fueled attacks to new exploits on nontraditional targets like edge devices or online worlds, the volume, variety, and scale of cyber threats will keep security teams on high alert in 2023 and beyond.

For his part, Derek Manky, chief security strategist and vice president for Global Threat Intelligence of FortiGuard Labs, noted that as cybercrime converges with advanced persistent threat methods, cybercriminals are finding ways to weaponize new technologies at scale to enable more disruption and destruction.

He said these cybercriminals are not just targeting the traditional attack surface but also beneath it, meaning both outside and inside conventional network environments.

"At the same time, they are spending more time on surveys to attempt to evade detection, intelligence, and controls. This means cyber risk continues escalating, and CISOs need to be as agile and organized as the adversary. Organizations will be better positioned to protect against these attacks with a cybersecurity platform integrated across networks, endpoints, and clouds to enable automated and actionable threat intelligence and advanced behavioral-based detection and response capabilities," Manky pointed out.