Fears about a fresh round of ransomware attacks, following last month's WannaCry malware that swept across the globe, have waned to a certain extent. Unfortunately, the respite will be short-lived as cyber criminals are continually creating more potent malware which can evade the best of cyber defences.

Data from McAfee Labs Global Threat Intelligence network showed that in the first quarter of 2017, there were 244 new cyber threats every minute, or more than four every second. The research also found that there were 301 publicly disclosed security incidents in the first quarter, an increase of 53 per cent over the previous quarter. More worryingly, more than 50 per cent of these attacks were directed at vital industry verticals such as health, public sector and education. Another study by IBM Security and Ponemon Institute, the 2017 Cost of a Data Breach report, showed that for the seventh year in a row, healthcare has topped the list as the most expensive industry for data breaches. Healthcare data breaches cost organisations US$380 per record (or incident), more than 2.5 times the global average across industries (US$141 per record.) The fact that the financial sector does not figure in the list of the top three most attacked verticals suggests that hackers are now looking for more more strategic information, rather than a quick financial heist, by stealing credit card and banking details. Healthcare and confidential government data are potentially valuable to hackers. It is speculated that the cyberattack on the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University, disclosed last month, was in part an attempt to steal valuable information on Singapore's Smart Nation project.

Data on cyberattacks makes for depressing reading. Globally, there's a huge shortage of cybersecurity personnel and Singapore is no exception to it. According to the eighth Global Information Security Workforce Study (GISWS), released in February this year by Centre for Cyber Safety and Education and non-profit (ISC)², the cybersecurity sector's global workforce shortage is set to reach 1.8 million by 2020 - representing a 20 per cent rise since 2015.