INTERPOL: Cybercrime Surges in Asia-Pacific, Accounting for 30% of All Crime in Some Nations

Executive Summary

INTERPOL has released its '2025/2026 Asia and South Pacific Cyberthreat Assessment Report,' painting a grim picture of the escalating cyber threat landscape in the region. The report, published on June 17, 2026, reveals that cybercrime has grown to an industrial scale, now accounting for as much as 30% of all nationally recorded crimes in more than half of the 18 member countries surveyed. The primary drivers of this surge are organized criminal networks leveraging phishing, ransomware, and increasingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI), to conduct widespread and financially devastating attacks.

Threat Overview

The report, covering the period from January 2024 to March 2025, provides a comprehensive analysis of the key cyber threats facing the Asia-Pacific region.

Phishing and Online Scams: This category is identified as the most prevalent and financially damaging threat. A third of the surveyed countries reported over 10,000 cases each. The report notes that individuals in the region are particularly susceptible, clicking on phishing links at approximately double the global average. Cloud applications are the most common targets for these phishing campaigns.
Ransomware: The region experienced over 135,000 ransomware attacks in 2024 alone. The most affected sectors include real estate, manufacturing, and financial services. The report indicates that ransomware was present in 51% of all system intrusion incidents.
Escalating Use of AI: Cybercriminal adoption of AI is a growing concern. INTERPOL observed a staggering 600% increase in discussions on cybercriminal forums and Telegram channels about using deepfakes and other AI tools for malicious purposes between February and June 2024. This suggests a future where AI-powered scams will become more sophisticated and widespread.
Data Breaches: System intrusions were the root cause of about 80% of all data breaches in 2024, with malware being a factor in 83% of those intrusions. This highlights the effectiveness of malware in gaining and maintaining access to victim networks.

Impact Assessment

The report underscores a fundamental shift in the nature of crime in the Asia-Pacific region. The industrial scale of these cyber operations is having a profound economic and social impact.

Economic Loss: The widespread success of phishing and ransomware is leading to significant financial losses for individuals, businesses, and governments across the region.
Erosion of Trust: The high prevalence of online scams erodes public trust in digital services and e-commerce, potentially hindering digital transformation and economic growth.
Overburdened Law Enforcement: With cybercrime making up such a large percentage of total crime, local and national law enforcement agencies are struggling to keep pace with the volume and sophistication of attacks.

Detection & Response

INTERPOL's Cybercrime Director, Neal Jetton, emphasized that criminals are "leveraging artificial intelligence, ransomware-as-a-service models and sophisticated social engineering techniques on an industrial scale." In response, the report calls for a "whole-of-society" approach, moving beyond just law enforcement.

Real-Time Intelligence Sharing: The report stresses the need for improved, real-time threat intelligence sharing between national law enforcement agencies, governments, and the private sector.
Public-Private Partnerships: Collaboration with technology and cybersecurity companies is essential to gain visibility into emerging threats and develop effective countermeasures.
Cross-Border Cooperation: Given the transnational nature of cybercrime, enhanced cooperation between countries in the region is critical for investigating and prosecuting criminal groups.

Mitigation

The report outlines several key areas for mitigation to build resilience against these threats:

User Education (M1017): Given the high success rate of phishing in the region, large-scale public awareness and user education campaigns are crucial to teach individuals and employees how to recognize and report scams.
Cloud Security: As cloud applications are primary targets, organizations must implement strong cloud security measures, including robust access controls, MFA, and regular security assessments.
Adoption of Security Best Practices: Businesses, particularly in the hard-hit manufacturing and real estate sectors, need to adopt fundamental cybersecurity hygiene, including regular patching, network segmentation, and data backup strategies to defend against ransomware.
Proactive Threat Hunting: Instead of waiting for an attack, organizations should proactively hunt for threats within their networks, using threat intelligence to look for the TTPs of prevalent groups in the region.

Given that the INTERPOL report identifies phishing as the top threat with double the global click-rate in the Asia-Pacific region, User Training is the most impactful and necessary countermeasure. Organizations and governments must invest in continuous, culturally-aware security training programs. This should not be a one-time event but an ongoing campaign that includes simulated phishing tests to measure effectiveness. Training should focus on identifying the hallmarks of phishing emails and online scams, the dangers of clicking unknown links or downloading attachments, and the importance of using strong, unique passwords and MFA. For the corporate environment, this training must be mandatory for all employees and include clear instructions on how to report a suspected phishing attempt to the security team, enabling them to respond quickly.

New INTERPOL Report Highlights Escalating Cyber Threats in Asia-Pacific, Driven by Phishing, Ransomware, and AI-Powered Scams