BSP: Cyber losses hit P5.82-B in 2024

Financial institutions supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) lost P5.82 billion from cyberattacks in 2024, up 2.6% from the previous year, according to an official.

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“Technological innovation, while it may have plenty of positive results, also has its fair share of negative externalities (which) take shape in the form of cybersecurity risks,” BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said at the UK-Southeast Asia Tech Week on Tuesday.

“Gross cyber losses amounted to P5.82 billion in 2024, a slight increase from the recorded P5.67 billion of losses in 2023,” she added.

Under Circular No. 1019, all BSP-supervised financial institutions are required to submit regular and event-driven reports covering technology-related information as well as incidence of major cyberattacks.

“Based on the submitted reports, the number of reports on crimes and losses submitted by our supervised institutions has surged by 150% from around 16,246 reports in 2022 to 40,572 in 2023, with a slight increase to 40,780 in 2024,” said Ms. Fonacier.

Top cybersecurity risks faced by BSP-supervised institutions last year include phishing, “card-not-present” fraud, account takeover or identity fraud, and hacking, she said.

“Phishing and card-not-present fraud are recorded to have the most financially prominent attacks in 2024, with estimated losses soaring to P1.8 billion and P1.5 billion, respectively,” she added.