The national e-payment scheme, mobile banking and smart factories are driving demand for application security service technology in Thailand, according to F5 Networks.
"There is strong demand for application security solutions in the local market, in particular mobile financial service applications," said Watchara Jiracharoensuwan, country manager of F5 Networks.
In a digital economy, service applications are accessible through a variety of channels and locations, opening up several risks and vulnerabilities. IT teams need to broaden their security and encryption capabilities across the cloud, data centre and hybrid spheres.
Financial, healthcare, government and manufacturing are the top potential sectors for application security service use in 2018, he said.
Cybercriminals have shifted their attacks to mobile banking apps as they can steal user credentials for fraud.
Hackers have also infiltrated government applications, harming the state's reputation, and attacked connected machines through the Internet of Things, including smart factories.
Healthcare is another industry that should be concerned because many applications are based on wearable devices and connected medical devices can be exposed to threats, he said.
Moreover, attackers are finding new ways to harm corporate systems through Application Programming Interface (API) as many firms try to collaborate with third-party systems to build complete service ecosystems.
Firms need to have strong security in mind, especially startups that use API.
Mr Watchara said the majority of web traffic is encrypted to protect customer data.
Hackers can send malware through encryption to bypass security device detection, and it requires technology that can do decryption to detect insight data and user behaviour.
"Applications are the new normal to engage customers via mobile devices, particularly millennial users, of which there are around 22 million in the country," said Mr Watchara.
In Asia, a study found that smartphone users on average use six applications daily and will terminate slow applications, so corporations need to address both application security and experience to users.
Citing a FireEye study entitled "M-Trends 2017: A View from the Front lines", he said Asia lacks transparency, leading to weak cyber-regulations and enforcement by authorities.
Research has also shown that Asian firms take 1.7 times longer than global media to discover a breach.
The company reports that global revenue in the 2017 fiscal year grew by 4.8%.
"Under the current Thailand 4.0 initiative, emerging technologies keep on developing and use becomes more widespread. We expect to see continuous growth in our software-based application services and we have worked closely with our customers and partners to manage the complexity of application deployment across multi-cloud environments," said Mr Watchara.