Thailand ranked fifth out of 25 countries in Asia for cyber security risks last year, says Romanian internet security software company Bitdefender.
Globally, the country's exposure to cyberattacks was ranked 11th. The rankings were based on the quantity of malware detected, said Michal Dominik, managing director of Bitdefender for Indochina.
India, Indonesia, China and Vietnam were the top four for cybersecurity risks in Asia, respectively.
Globally, 390,000 new malicious programmes are generated every day, compared with an average of 32,000 per day over the past six years.
Last year, 60% of all targeted attacks struck small and medium-sized enterprises because they lacked the resources to protect themselves from cyberattacks. Large enterprises suffered 25% of advanced persistent threats.
Mr Dominik warned of rising ransomware for Linux, Windows, Android and Mac users this year.
"Most of these attacks will specialise in information theft," he said.
Mr Dominik cited a report from Forbes.com that estimated the global cybersecurity market is expected to reach US$170 billion by 2020, up from $75 billion in 2015. The market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8% from 2015-20.
Cloud security is one of the strongest annual growth markets at 50%, followed by mobile security at 18%. Banking, finance and governments are big spenders on cybersecurity.
He said Asia-Pacific was a fast-growing region for cybersecurity where it is expected to be worth $7.5 billion. The compound annual growth rate during 2015-20 is estimated at 43%, thanks to the rapid growth of digital services and higher awareness of cyberthreats.
He estimated Thailand's information security market at $20 million this year.
"We aim to have a 20% share in the local security market this year, up from 10% last year," said Mr Dominik.
Bitdefender appointed SET-listed SIS Distribution as its local distributor to increase sales and capitalise on increased spending for data centres and cloud computing infrastructure and platforms.
Wuttikrai Matthavabhandhu, product manager of Bitdefender, said it was in talks with prospective internet service providers to bundle its software with their internet services. The company also wants to bundle its software with Oppo mobile phones as it did in Vietnam, he said.