A threat report based on a survey of more than 250 CIOs, CTOs and CISOs in Singapore has revealed that ransomware attacks were the prime cause of breaches in the island nation.
The Singapore threat report, published by cybersecurity company Carbon Black mentioned that 96 percent of businesses reported suffering a data breach, while 93 percent of Singaporean companies reported an increase in overall cyberattack volume in the past 12 months.
As per the findings, 92 percent of Singaporean businesses said cyberattacks have grown more sophisticated and 98 percent said cyberattacks they have IT security concerns around digital transformation projects and 5G network rollout. Currently, almost all the concerned companies have decided to combat the cybersecurity threat by increasing their security budgets over the next year.
Head of Security Strategy at Carbon Black, Rick McElroy said that their analysis on the findings revealed that companies are "adjusting to the 'new normal' of sustained and sophisticated cyberattacks.
"Greater awareness of external threats and compliance risks have also prompted businesses to become more proactive about managing cyber risks as they witness the financial and reputational impact that breaches entail."
While 48 percent of companies surveyed noted a degree of financial damage associated with breaches, 83 percent said they suffered damage to their corporate reputation.
In terms of the security around the implementation and management of digital transformation and 5G, 98 percent of Singaporean organisations expressed concern, while 55 percent predicted it would expand the scope of cyberattacks.
The Singapore threat report showed that the training and recruitment have also become a key challenge for businesses and 67 percent found it more difficult to recruit and train specialist IT staff for cybersecurity.
Recently when IBTimes Singapore talked to ethical hacker Wesley McGrew, who leads the team at HORNE Cyber, he said that when it comes to cyber-attacks, ransomware is the current favorite technique, adopted by hackers to steal data.
Ransomware is a type of malicious computer program that denies access to the system or its data until a ransom is paid to the attacker. Only after paying the ransom the attacker provides a key or password that unlocks the data. But there is no surety that after making the payment hackers will return all the stolen data.
Not only the corporate organization but several government platforms also currently face huge threat due to the increased amount of sophisticated ransomware attacks in many countries.
