TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan placed sixth overall in this year’s APEC Business Advisory Council cybersecurity assessment, which evaluated the readiness of small- and medium-sized enterprises across 21 economies.

ABAC, the private-sector advisory body of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, provides guidance to economic leaders and submits annual recommendations. Lin Chih-chen (林之晨), president of Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan’s ABAC representative, said the initiative offered cybersecurity health checks to around 2,000 SMEs, according to CNA.

The survey aims to give policymakers a high-level overview rather than a detailed ranking. Lin noted that it relied on each economy’s SME submissions and was mainly intended to raise awareness of cybersecurity among smaller businesses.

This year, artificial intelligence technologies were incorporated to evaluate SME preparedness. Among the 21 economies, the top five were Chile, the US, Canada, Papua New Guinea, and Brunei, while Russia and China ranked at the bottom.

Although Taiwan performed relatively well, Lin highlighted a growing gap in cybersecurity maturity among SMEs. He said future efforts should focus on supporting weaker businesses with tools to strengthen website security, email servers, and other critical infrastructure.

The risks for SMEs are tangible. In Taiwan, ransomware attacks on SMEs are increasingly common, according to Business Today.

Former National Security Council advisor Li Han-ming (李漢銘) once asked over 20 SME owners at a university alumni gathering whether they had been targeted by hackers. Nearly half admitted to paying ransoms, although most amounts were only a few thousand US dollars.

Li cautioned that if such businesses are government contractors, military suppliers, or part of critical supply chains, these vulnerabilities cannot be ignored.

Globally, SMEs remain prime targets for cybercrime.

A report from US-based ransomware analysis firm Coveware showed that 64% of attacks in the second quarter targeted organizations with 11 to 1,000 employees, taking advantage of their weaker defenses. By comparison, enterprises with more than 25,000 employees accounted for only 8% of attacks.