Carbon Black, a leader in cloud-delivered, next-generation endpoint security, today released the results of its first Singapore Threat Report.
According to the survey research, cyber attacks are increasing in volume and sophistication, causing regular security breaches affecting 96% of organisations surveyed. The report analyses survey results from different industries, organisation sizes and IT team sizes to build a picture of the modern attack and cyber defence landscape in Singapore.
Key survey research findings:
- 96% of surveyed Singaporean organisations reported been breached in the last 12 months and the average number of reported breaches per surveyed organisation is 3.98
- 92% of surveyed organisations say they have seen an increase in attack volumes
- 95% of surveyed organisations say attacks have become more sophisticated
- 97% of surveyed organisations plan to increase spending on cyber defence
Ransomware is the most prolific attack type in Singapore, according to the survey, with 28% of organisations naming it the most frequently encountered. Malware and Google Drive (cloud data breach) were in second and third place at 25% and 11% respectively.
However, the human factor plays a big part in the attacks that lead to breaches, the survey found. Phishing attacks are at the root of 14% of successful breaches, the survey noted. Process weakness was the identified cause in 12% of breaches, according to the survey, indicating that basic security hygiene should still be considered a priority by organisations.
Financial Institutions Face Increasingly Sophisticated Attacks
The survey found that financial institutions witnessed the greatest growth in attack sophistication with 63% reporting that attacks had grown increasingly sophisticated.
Nearly two-thirds of business in the Manufacturing and Engineering industry have been breached three to five times in the last 12 months, the survey found. Third-party applications and ransomware may pose the greatest threats to this sector (both 23%), as these tactics were the primary causes of successful breaches, the survey found.
Threat Hunting Delivers on Its Promise
79% of surveyed Singaporean organisations said they are actively threat hunting, with over a third (34%) having threat hunted for more than one year, the survey found. Nearly half (46%) said they have started in the past year. A very encouraging 94% of those organisations report that threat hunting has strengthened their defences and 41% said that it has significantly strengthened their defences, according to the survey.
"Our first Singaporean threat report indicates that organisations in Singapore are under intense pressure from escalating cyber attacks," said Rick McElroy, Head of Security Strategy for Carbon Black. "The research indicates increases across the board in attack volume and sophistication, causing frequent breaches. In response, an encouraging number of Singaporean organisations are adopting threat hunting and seeing positive results. As threat hunting strategies start to mature, we hope to see fewer attacks making it to full breach status."
