Global data from last year found that 64 per cent of all FireEye-managed detection and response customers were targeted again by the same or similarly motivated attack group -- up from 56 per cent in 2017 and Asia Pacific tops the list of malware report for 2019.

As organisations get better at detecting data breaches, hackers have become increasingly persistent, retargeting the firms they earlier broke into, US-based cybersecurity firm FireEye said on Monday.

A US-headquartered firm, Malwarebytes estimated an increase of 270% of malware detections amongst business in the Asia-Pacific region.

The financial services sector was seen to have the largest number of retargeted victims in 2018, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, revealed the "FireEye 2019 Mandiant M-Trends Report". This trend is particularly relevant for the Indian market, given last year's cyber attack incidents at Cosmos Bank and State Bank of Mauritius.

Among the top ten countries that pose the biggest threat to malware, Asia Pacific tops the list with five countries.

Country                                          Biggest Threat

1. United States                              Information Theft
2. Indonesia                                    Backdoors
3. United Kingdom                         Information Theft
4. France                                         Information Theft
5. Malaysia                                     Backdoors
6. Thailand                                      Backdoors
7. Australia                                     Cryptomining
8. Germany                                     Information Theft
9. Brazil                                          Adware
10. Philippines                                Information Theft

"I encourage Indian firms to reassess their security posture and determine whether they can quickly detect and respond to intrusions," said Steve Ledzian, Vice President and APAC CTO, FireEye.

The Indian businesses must also determine whether "they know who is likely to attack them and how, and whether they have tested their security against human attackers in a red team scenario to try to spot weaknesses before their real world adversaries do," Ledzian said in a statement.

Singapore, a prized target

In Singapore alone, Malwarebytes saw a 180% increase in malware detections amongst the business sectors.

In the meantime, organisations appear to be getting better at discovering breaches internally, rather than being notified by an outside source such as law enforcement.