MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines emerged as one of the economies most hit by various Internet-based threats last year, the latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report released over the weekend showed.

The Philippines ranked 10th among Asia-Pacific nations, keeping its rank in the region in 2008, and 33rd globally in terms of reports on malicious activity on the Internet, the Symantec Corp. study showed. The report did not specify how many economies were covered.

The study categorized Internet threats into: malicious codes, where the Philippines ranked 5th in Asia and the Pacific; spam zombies, where the country ranked 10th; phishing, where it ranked 9th; and bots, 10th.

The Philippines also ranked 11th as an origin of such attacks in Asia and the Pacific.

China ranked first with 32% of all malicious activities in the region, followed by India, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia and then the Philippines with 2%.

"Malicious activity usually affects computers that are connected to high-speed broadband Internet because these connections make attractive targets..." the report read.