Singapore has overtaken countries including the US, Russia and China as the nation launching the most cyberattacks globally, Israeli data security firm Check Point Software Technologies Ltd said.
The company, whose software tracks an average of 8 million to 10 million live cyberattacks daily, said Singapore rose to pole position after ranking in the top five attacking nations for the previous two weeks.
“It is not particularly unusual for Singapore to be featured among the top attacking countries,” Check Point’s Asia-Pacific spokeswoman Eying Wee said.
A key Southeast Asian technology hub, much of the Internet traffic flowing through Singapore originates in other countries.
That means a cyberattack recorded as coming from Singapore may have been launched outside the country, she said.
The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore said there are a number of reports measuring cyberattacks, which are based on various methodologies and therefore provide different perspectives of the situation.
“As a commercial hub with high interconnectivity, Singapore is undoubtedly an attractive target for cybercriminals,” a spokesman for the agency said in an e-mail.
It is important for the nation to maintain high cybersecurity standards and take necessary measures to protect its systems and data, the spokesman added.
The city-state, which wants to become a global technology hub, recently stepped up efforts to tighten cybersecurity after several high profile attacks on government agencies and companies.
ORCHESTRATED ATTACKS
“Singapore has now found itself on someone’s list,” Singaporean Minister of Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said in July.
“The attacks are orchestrated, the attacks are targeted, they want to steal specific information, there are minds behind this orchestration,” Ng said.
Separately, security researchers said hackers compromised popular computer-cleaning software as part of a sophisticated attack that targeted several high-profile technology companies.
CLEANING SOFTWARE
The company that sells CCleaner software — Prague-based Avast Software — said the attack affected more than 2 million computers late last month and early this month.
San Jose, California-based Cisco Systems Inc and its Talos cybersecurity group discovered and disclosed the breach after hackers targeted Cisco’s own internal domain, as well as domains of Microsoft Corp, Google, Samsung Electronics Co and other tech companies.
Cisco cybersecurity expert Craig Williams said attackers used an “advanced reconnaissance system” on hundreds of thousands of PCs with the aim of penetrating the tech companies’ domains and extracting valuable intellectual property.
Cisco said at least 20 targeted machines were infected with the secondary malware. It has not disclosed which companies were affected.
Additional reporting by AP
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