Cyber threats spur urgent data protection call

Filipino consumers and businesses face increasing risks of service disruptions and data loss as cyberattacks surge, prompting a call for organizations to strengthen their data protection and recovery systems to keep essential services running.

In a statement over the weekend, Synology, a provider of network-attached storage and data management solutions, said that organizations must prioritize data protection as a core operational concern, not just a technical function, as prevention alone is no longer enough.

“With digital operations now central to day-to-day business, the ability to recover data and systems quickly is becoming critical during cyber incidents,” said Claire Huang, Synology’s Country Manager for the Philippines.

Cyber attacks in the Philippines

Cyber attacks in the Philippines rose 49 percent in the third quarter of 2025 from the previous quarter, with 76 breach incidents compromising more than 4 million accounts, according to a cybersecurity report.

The World Economic Forum also warned in its Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 that AI-enabled fraud is emerging as a major threat, as generative AI makes scams more convincing and easier to scale.

These attacks threaten sectors that Filipinos rely on daily, including banking, healthcare, retail, logistics, and business process outsourcing, where even brief outages can disrupt transactions, delay services, and erode public trust.

Traditional backup strategies no longer sufficient

Thus, Huang said traditional backup strategies are no longer sufficient because attackers now target backup and recovery systems to maximize disruption.