decrypting myths

The Singapore Cyber Landscape ( SCL ) 2022 report published by the Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore has warned of the extended risk faced by the state from emerging threats such as ransom for reputation and AI-based cyberattacks . We spoke to Kevin Reed , CISO at Acronis , about what this means on the frontline .

What are the key cybersecurity threats and trends you have observed in Singapore over the past year and how have these evolved compared to previous years ?

Ransomware attacks continue to be prevalent in 2023 and are rising both globally and in Singapore . The initial access vectors shifted slightly from weak credentials on publicly available endpoints like Remote Desktop ( which was common at the beginning of the pandemic ) to exploiting vulnerabilities in various public-facing services as well as attacks using leaked credentials .

As a cybersecurity company operating in Singapore , what are the specific challenges you face in addressing the region ’ s unique threat landscape ? Are there any notable differences compared to other global markets ?

Singapore may be different from other markets because there is a relatively high concentration of data centres here in comparison to IT being employed by local businesses . Although the absolute numbers are not high – Singapore is not even in the top 10 nations by the number of data centres – this relatively small population makes the ratio of data centre resources to population rather high . This skews the threat landscape towards attacks on server systems instead of clients .

With rapid Digital Transformation taking place in Singapore , including the increased adoption of IoT devices and cloud technologies , how has this affected the cybersecurity landscape and what measures are being taken to mitigate associated risks ?

E-sims are a new threat – a new convincing technology , but recovery protocols are not very well developed and sometimes do not take security issues into account . In the past , sim recovery required sim to be shipped to www . intelligentciso . com

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