Tackling cyberattacks in 2023

LOOKING back at 2022 is instructive as Singapore organisations prepare their cybersecurity approach for 2023. It helps guide the security game plan and helps prepare employees and systems for the year ahead. For example, some state-backed attacks focus on stealing intellectual property (IP) from technology companies. Other state-based strikes are focused on stealing funds. Knowing this, technology companies need to better protect their IP, while non-tech firms may need to implement stronger security policies around financial transfers.

Over the course of the past year, Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency issued advisories relating to Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, malicious cyberassaults stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, ransomware strikes, API hits, and DDoS attacks. By the time the year ended, 46 per cent of all businesses in Singapore had experienced a cyberincident.

BEC attacks proved themselves to be more profitable than ransomware, costing organisations over US$2.4 billion in 2021 and more than US$43 billion since 2013.