Historic crypto heist highlights Thailand’s cybersecurity crisis

Experts warn that Thailand’s rapid digital expansion is making it a prime target for cyber attacks as crypto exchange Bybit suffers a record $1.5 billion hack

Thai servers suffered 732,620 cyberattacks in 2024, marking a 125.91% from 324,295 attacks in 2023, the latest report on cybersecurity published by Kaspersky last week showed. 

The report noted that Thai servers faced the highest number of attacks in 2019, with 1.08 million, before declining to 273,458 in 2020 and 192,217 in 2021. However, the numbers rose again in 2022 with 364,219 cases.The report was released just as Thailand saw the largest cryptocurrency hack in history on Friday, when Bybit, a cryptocurrency trading platform was hacked and $1.5 billion worth of crypto assets were stolen, most of which were via the Ethereum crypto platform. The assets were quickly transferred across several accounts. 

Bybit’s CEO confirmed that the breach has been resolved and assured users that the company is prepared to compensate for the losses. However, the hacking has triggered mass withdrawals amid fears of bankruptcy. 

Several blockchain analysis firms, including Elliptic, suspect the hack was carried out by Lazarus, a notorious North Korea-linked hacking group known for exploiting cybersecurity loopholes to commit financial crimes. 

The Kaspersky report, meanwhile, said that cyberattacks in Thailand generally target public and private hospitals, airlines, banks, insurance companies, restaurant chains, universities and the government vaccination registration system. 

“Cyberattacks on Thai servers have skyrocketed,” Adrian Hia, Kaspersky’s managing director of Asia-Pacific, said, attributing the surge to Thailand’s rapid data centre expansion, driven by the growing demand for cloud services, data storage and processing solutions. 

The Thai data centre market is projected to reach US$1.5 billion (50.22 billion baht) by 2030, which could increase the country’s vulnerability to cyber threats. 

Meanwhile, Sia Tiong Yeo, Kaspersky’s general manager for Asia-Pacific, pointed out that Thailand’s digital economy is expanding rapidly, leading to higher cybersecurity demand from both consumers and businesses. 

He added that the company is enhancing cybersecurity solutions and collaborations to counter emerging threats, particularly those powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Kaspersky expects to achieve double-digit revenue growth this year through partnerships with public and private agencies, including those under the Thailand 4.0 and smart city policies.

(2025/02/24-00:00)