Businesses Prepare for Bankruptcy Without Cyber Security: One Hacker Can Create 10,000 Viruses

Jakarta, VIVA - Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has shared tips for business owners to stay safe from cyber attacks in 2026, particularly amid the ongoing global geopolitical turmoil.

One key recommendation is to prepare a budget for cyber security equivalent to the business growth target.

“If you aim for a 20 per cent business increase, ensure that every business customer receives a 20 per cent uplift in cyber security,” said Kaspersky’s Managing Director for Asia Pacific, Adrian Hia, in Jakarta on Wednesday, 8 April 2026.

According to him, this year’s geopolitical unrest will lead to a continued rise in cyber attacks compared to previous years.

This situation is also driven by the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which makes creating cyber attacks easier.

“So, whereas previously one person created one virus, now they ask AI to help create 10,000 viruses,” Adrian emphasised.

Based on Kaspersky’s 2023 data, there were 370,000 new malware instances every day. Two years later, Kaspersky recorded cyber attacks reaching 500,000 malware instances daily.

Kaspersky noted that in 2025, Indonesia faced 14,909,665 cyber attacks. Armed with this data, Adrian believes that in 2026, cyber attacks will increase further, compounded by geopolitical pressures and rapid AI developments.

Meanwhile, Kaspersky’s Country Manager for Indonesia, Defi Nofitra, stated that one measure business owners must take to protect their services from cyber attacks is to implement a SOC or Security Operation Centre.

Defi explained that a SOC is a centralised command centre that functions to monitor, detect, analyse, and respond to cyber security incidents experienced by an organisation’s networks and systems.

By implementing a SOC, a business’s reputation can improve amid the growing complex threats of cyber attacks.

Based on Kaspersky’s internal research in 2025, it was revealed that building a SOC independently for a business takes considerable time.

At least, a SOC to safeguard a business’s cyber security would take 6-12 months. Additionally, Defi advised business owners not to rely too heavily on a single type of technology for running their data storage business.