'Except for large corporations that are already at the gateway of protecting their assets and are investing in vulnerability assessment, we still have very basic security in place in the Philippines,' said Dela Cruz, noting that local organizations usually have a firewall and antivirus software in place.

But while companies are well aware of the security threats, he said users are faced with a common problem of what security tools to buy with limited budgets.

Government agencies, for one, are among the most vulnerable but least protected establishments. 'One concern is that there is no auditing body to audit each and every government office,' said Dela Cruz.