By Joon Hyuk Lee, APAC Market Development Director
According to recent research reports and news, Asia Pacific regions are witnessing a surge in cyber-attacks – and the highly publicized online attacks all start with compromised passwords.
In December 2021, nearly 470 customers of a Singapore bank had fallen victim to SMS phishing attacks, with total losses amounting to at least $8.5 million. In New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) received over 114,000 SMS scam reports between September and October 2021, the highest in the Department’s history. In India, cyber-attacks have doubled in the past three years, according to University of Surrey research, with enterprises the most common target of these attacks. In January, a local payment provider experienced a data breach, with 35 million customers having their data, including card information and fingerprint scans, released on the dark web for anyone to buy. These are just a few examples on a list that continues to grow.
The Industry Is Uniting to End the Password Problem
On February 15th, the FIDO APAC Marketing Forum (AMF) brought together FIDO members from 12 countries in APAC to share insights, lessons learned and best practices to mitigate the surge of cyber-attacks that have taken hold of the region.
Here are the highlights of the sessions:
 | The agenda started with a welcome message from Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance. Shikiar said, “2022 is the year of FIDO adoption and this time we mean it. FIDO adoption is truly happening now at scale. Asia has always been at the forefront with early FIDO adoptions, and it is wonderful to see a new momentum in Taiwan and ASEAN.” |
 | Megan Shamas, Senior Director of Marketing at the FIDO Alliance, reviewed 2021 highlights and shared 2022 global marketing programs that are being prepared. She detailed FIDO’s new year marketing programs that are divided into many different boxes, such as PR, digital, content, industry events, seminars, and research, while seeking member feedback. |
 | The group heard from Karen Chang of Egis Technology, who is also Chair of FIDO Taiwan Engagement Forum while serving as a member at SEMI E187 Standard Committee. Chang pointed out that SEMICON Taiwan released SEMI E187, the first ever semiconductor standard. FIDO is listed as a reference of ‘Authentication Technologies’ in the document. |
 | Le Tuan Khoi from MK Group in Vietnam shared their FIDO deployment case study. The insightful local trends on cybersecurity and cybercrime statistics were highly appreciated by the members. It was very helpful for us to understand the local markets and how FIDO can be accepted there. |
 | Keiko Itakura from Rakuten Group shared Rakuten’s FIDO implementation case study. Itakura, who also serves as Co-Vice Chair of the FIDO Japan Working Group, said, “FIDO has great availability to unify authentication methods and phishing resistance by utilizing standard technology.” At the end of her presentation, the members congratulated the 25th year anniversary of Rakuten. |
 | Special guest Yusuf Khan from Digital Dubai joined us to share digital ID trends and related activities in Dubai. He emphasized that balance between usability and security is very important, which FIDO Authentication is on the sweet spot. It was also exciting to learn that Dubai is exploring passwordless and secure mobile based digital identity. |
 | Finally, Young Lee from DEFEND in New Zealand joined us as a special speaker. Lee gave us a bird-eye view of New Zealand’s 2021 Cybersecurity Landscape. He said, “thousands of phishing and credential harvesting attacks were recorded in Q2 2021, and it was a 73% increase from the previous quarter.” |
A Call to Participate
The FIDO APAC Marketing Forum (AMF), under the FIDO Marketing and Communications Board Committee, was inaugurated on November 28th, 2020, to provide a platform for regional members to connect, learn from each other and share best practices. Although it was established during the worst period of the global pandemic, the forum has now grown to 98 members from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Members in the APAC region are encouraged to participate in this forum and can get involved by contacting info@fidoalliance.org.
We look forward to hosting yet another exciting AMF meeting in Q2 2022!
