Cyber security must not be overlooked

WHEN it comes to targeting organisations for cyber attacks, size does matter. Large corporations make natural targets for cyber criminals seeking notoriety. They are well-established, deal in huge sums of money and employ a large number of people across continents, which widens the number of potential attack vectors.

A successful attack on such corporations can allow cyber criminals to gain access to large volumes of data. Case in point, personal information belonging to 3.1 million clients were exposed in Japan last year when multinational automotive manufacturer Toyota suffered a chain of data breaches across the Asia-Pacific region.

As a leading economic hub in Asia-Pacific, Singapore serves as the regional headquarters for many large organisations. These offices are particularly attractive targets for cyber criminals seeking financial gain, as they are more likely to house valuable data such as strategic business plans and financial reports. When it comes to harvesting information, cyber criminals are opportunistic and do not discriminate. Besides multinational businesses based here, large public organisations are equally at risk. Being susceptible to both direct and indirect threats, public organisations need to do their due diligence before engaging external vendors to ensure that they have strict compliance.