Fortinet released new IDC survey findings that show a significant rise in both the volume and complexity of cyber threats across the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region. The study reported that attackers now use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to launch faster, more covert attacks, making it harder for security teams to detect and respond. The report also pointed to emerging challenges linked to visibility gaps, weak governance, and aging infrastructure, which continue to strain already overworked cybersecurity teams.
Nearly 78% of organizations in the Philippines reported encountering AI-powered cyber threats within the past year, according to Fortinet's commissioned IDC survey. These threats have scaled rapidly, with 64% of respondents observing a twofold increase and 28% seeing a threefold surge in incidents. AI-enabled attacks have become harder to detect and now target human behavior, misconfigurations, and identity systems.
The top AI-driven threats identified in the Philippines include deepfake business email compromise, AI-enabled social engineering, adversarial AI and data poisoning, automated attack surface scanning, and polymorphic malware. Only 9% of organizations expressed high confidence in defending against these threats. Around 27% acknowledged that AI threats now outpace their detection tools, while 19% admitted they have no capability to track such threats, exposing a critical readiness gap.
Cyber risk has become a constant concern rather than a series of isolated incidents. Organizations across the Philippines now face an evolving threat environment that includes ransomware (66%), software supply chain attacks (62%), cloud vulnerabilities (58%), insider threats (56%), and phishing (50%). However, the most damaging threats have shifted toward internal weaknesses, such as unpatched vulnerabilities, insider activity, cloud misconfigurations, and software supply chain exposures.
The survey indicated that traditional threats such as phishing and malware continue to grow at a modest pace of around 10%, while emerging threats like supply chain attacks (16%), IoT and OT vulnerabilities (14%), cloud issues (12%), and zero-day exploits (10%) are rising faster. These threats are exploiting governance gaps, increasing system complexity, and limitations in visibility, leading to higher business risks.
The impact of cyberattacks now extends beyond downtime. Affected organizations in the Philippines reported a loss of customer trust (62%), regulatory penalties (56%), data breaches (54%), and operational disruption (42%). Financial losses remain significant, with 46% of breaches resulting in monetary damage. One in four incidents cost over US$500,000.
Security teams in the Philippines operate under intense pressure with limited resources. On average, only 7% of an organization's workforce supports internal IT functions, and just 13% of that team focuses on cybersecurity. This results in less than one cybersecurity professional per 100 employees. Only 15% of organizations have a dedicated CISO, and 63% combine cybersecurity with broader IT responsibilities. Just 6% maintain dedicated teams for security operations or threat hunting.
Top challenges for these lean teams include high threat volume (54%), a shortage of skilled cybersecurity talent (52%), and tool complexity (44%). These pressures contribute to operational fatigue, skill fragmentation, and burnout.
Despite growing awareness, cybersecurity budgets remain relatively low. On average, Philippine organizations allocate just 15% of IT budgets to security, amounting to only 1.4% of company revenue. Around 80% of organizations reported increased spending, though most budget increases remained under 10%.
Organizations now prioritize identity protection, network security, Zero Trust/SASE architecture, cyber resilience, and cloud-native application security. However, areas such as OT/IoT security, DevSecOps integration, and security training remain underfunded. These gaps reflect continued underinvestment in human-layer and operational risk controls.
Security and networking convergence has gained widespread adoption. In the Philippines, 96% of organizations have either merged security and networking operations or are currently assessing integration options. Around 70% are already in the process of consolidating tools, but 50% still struggle with fragmented systems and integration issues.
Organizations pursuing consolidation aim to enhance detection speed, streamline support, and reduce costs. Reported benefits include faster issue resolution (59%), improved integration (53%), lower operating costs (53%), and stronger security posture (51%).
