RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT, CRYPTO SCAMS ARE DEVELOPMENTS TO WATCH
In its report, CSA also highlighted associated with a world of different cyber norms, environments and standards in the near future, sparked by decreased global reliance on Western technology because of geopolitical tensions like the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“Russia had previously faced a major hurdle in decoupling from US technology, because of the risks that various payment services and product offerings utilized by Russian citizens would be suspended, ” said CSA.
Along with sanctions imposed by Western technology companies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine , Russia’s desire to wean alone off such tech is “very likely to strengthen”, the company added.
Countries such as China also are seeking to gain self-sufficiency in advanced technology locations, said CSA.
The agency furthermore observed that cybercriminal and hacktivist groups are taking sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict plus engaging in more malicious cyber activities for politically motivated reasons.
“This advancement increases the risk of reprisals, as any serious cyber incident by these groups can be used as a pretext intended for escalation by one particular side or the additional, ” said CSA.
Crypto-based criminal offense has also been on the rise, largely through the use of peer-to-peer monetary platforms that enable direct transactions.
The borderless availability of the platforms as well as anonymity features make it difficult to track illicit activity and impose regulations across borders, said CSA.
“Such challenges more embolden cybercriminals to perpetuate more of such crypto-based scams, ” it added.
CSA also recognized a trend associated with cybercriminals targeting essential Internet of Items (IoT) devices in ransomware attacks, leading to significant downtime expenses.
“Employees are also known to connect their particular personal IoT gadgets to the organisation’s systems without the knowledge of security teams, ” the particular agency added.
“Should organisations within critical, time-sensitive industrial sectors such as healthcare end up being infected with ransomware, there could be serious, life-threatening consequences. ”
CYBERSECURITY A ‘TEAM SPORT’
Enhancing awareness and adopting good cybersecurity methods is key to enabling a digital economy and digital way of life, stated CSA.
The agency launched initiatives such as the SG Internet Safe Programme last year to help companies better protect themselves on the web, and has also launched cybersecurity toolkits crafted to different enterprise tasks.
CSA furthermore worked with the Infocomm Media Development Specialist (IMDA) to offer SMEs pre-approved cybersecurity options.
“The cyber landscape in 2021 was fraught along with increasingly sophisticated dangers and more brazen risk actors, ” stated Mr David Koh, commissioner of cybersecurity and chief executive of CSA.
“The Government has walked up efforts to work alongside our stakeholders to carry out more, but cybersecurity is a team sport. Only by banding together and working across borders, do we stand a fighting chance against the ever-evolving threat, ” he added.