The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) has received an average of three times as many cyber incident reports each month since September as it did in the first eight months of this year. The agency said the incidents did not appear to be coordinated attacks targeting Singapore, but reflected a global trend of hackers exploiting system vulnerabilities to launch opportunistic attacks.
Singapore has seen a spate of cyber incidents recently. In a statement on Friday (13 November), CSA said hackers were increasingly exploiting system vulnerabilities or inadequate security measures to launch attacks. It urged all organisations to strengthen their cyber defences immediately.
CSA said hackers now actively scan the internet for systems with security vulnerabilities, and any organisation could fall victim. As hackers increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to find and exploit vulnerabilities, attacks could become even faster, leaving organisations less time to patch vulnerabilities and guard against attacks.
Some cyber incidents also involved breaches of third-party vendors’ systems, underscoring the need for businesses to address not only their own cyber security but also risks posed by their vendors. “All organisations, regardless of size or sector, should take immediate steps to protect themselves.”
In a separate statement on the same day, the Personal Data Protection Commission said more prominent organisations had reported major incidents involving personal data breaches over the past week. Its preliminary assessment was that hackers had exploited various common system vulnerabilities in these attacks. There was no apparent link between the incidents, while some were linked to global data breaches.
