THE Philippines is now the seventh most attacked country in terms of mobile malware, according to a report of a global cybersecurity company Kaspersky.

Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) revealed over two million mobile malware were detected by Kaspersky Lab worldwide in the first quarter of 2016, 11 times greater than in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Kaspersky Lab detected 2.045 million malicious installation packages. The number of new mobile ransomware, meanwhile, increased 1.4 times, from 1,984 in the last quarter of 2015, to 2,895 in the first quarter of 2016.

Two in every 10 Kaspersky Lab security solutions users or 15.7 percent in the Philippines faced a mobile threat during the first quarter of the year.

According to the company, this is a huge jump from its recorded mobile threats during the third quarter of 2015, which was at 5.1 percent to 10 percent.

“With 119 million Filipino mobile phone subscribers, it is not surprising that the Philippines is now among the top 10 most attacked countries with mobile malware among 213 nations included in Kaspersky Security Network (KSN). The main goal of cybercriminals is to earn and with millions of active smartphone users in the country, the Philippines is like an overflowing pot of gold,” warned Anthony Chua, territory channel manager for the Philippines and Singapore at Kaspersky Lab Southeast Asia, in a statement.

“We are publishing these numbers to encourage awareness and not to cast fear. It is high time for Filipino mobile users to think about security. Protect your mobile devices not because of dread for the cybercriminals’ stealthy attacks. Do it for yourself, to secure your data, your privacy and your money. Because once your devices are infected, you will be the biggest losers and the online criminals the highest gainers,” Chua added.

China has the highest number of detected mobile malware infections for the first quarter of 2016.

Also in the top 10 are Bangladesh (28 percent), Uzbekistan (21 percent), Algeria (17.6 percent), Nigeria (17.4 percent), India (17.0 percent), Indonesia (15.6 percent), Ukraine (15.0 percent) and Malaysia (14.0 percent).

All countries in the top 10 list except China are attacked mostly by Adware.

The safest countries, meanwhile, were Taiwan (2.9 percent), Australia (2.7 percent) and Japan (0.9 percent).