August 7, 2026 | 07:00 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has become a major hub of activity for SilverFox, a China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group known for developing and modifying its own malware to evade conventional security detection.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said attacks by SilverFox have become increasingly concentrated in Greater China and Southeast Asia. The group, which operates at a sophisticated level beyond typical cybercriminal activity, has been known to customize malware such as ValleyRAT and Winos to bypass standard antivirus systems.
Kaspersky GReAT Lead Security Researcher Jin Ye said SilverFox has primarily targeted the manufacturing sector, with attacks commonly carried out through phishing campaigns, compromised websites, and malicious IP addresses.
"The attacks we hear about almost every day involve three simple methods: regular phishing, phishing through major websites, and attacks through IP addresses," Jin said during a session at Kaspersky's Cyber Security Weekend APAC 2026 in Guangzhou, China, on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026.
According to Jin, about 60.4 percent of SilverFox's global attack activity occurred in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly East and South Asia. The figure was significantly higher than North America's 18.8 percent share and Europe's 16.3 percent.
China and Southeast Asia Emerge as Key Targets
Within the Asia-Pacific region, 91.2 percent of SilverFox attacks were detected in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao.
Jin also highlighted emerging cyber threat hotspots in Southeast Asia, with Singapore, Myanmar, and Cambodia becoming new areas of concern for SilverFox-related activity.
Kaspersky data showed that the group does not target all industries equally. Manufacturing accounted for 36.6 percent of recorded attacks, followed by IT services at 14.5 percent and general business sectors at 13.8 percent.
"The healthcare and financial sectors, which hold high-value data, also have the potential to become targets for attackers," Jin said.
SilverFox has also been linked to the distribution of fake Claude applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The applications, designed to imitate Anthropic's AI chatbot, were used as tools for broader cyberattacks and sensitive data collection.
AI-Powered Cyber Threats Raise Security Concerns
Kaspersky APAC Managing Director Adrian Hia said hackers using artificial intelligence technology are now moving faster than many corporate security teams can detect and respond to threats.
"Cybersecurity is no longer just a race against time, but also a race against invisibility," Adrian said during the same event.
He said Kaspersky detected and blocked an average of 500,000 unique malicious files every day throughout 2025, representing a 7 percent increase from 2024.
Adrian cited AI-driven cyberattacks that disrupted the logistics chain of Japan's frozen food company Nichirei Corp. Similar large-scale ransomware threats have also affected manufacturing operations and IT systems in India.
In 2026, Kaspersky identified more than 15,000 malware samples disguised as AI agent software. Adrian warned that the growing reliance of AI agents on application programming interfaces (APIs) and third-party plugins could create new vulnerabilities.
"When one upstream component is compromised, the impact can trigger a domino effect that damages multiple downstream systems," he said.
As AI adoption accelerates, cybersecurity experts warn that companies will need stronger defenses to address increasingly sophisticated attacks that combine automation, malware, and social engineering techniques.
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