Cybersecurity lessons from the pandemic

LOOKING back over the last 18 months, even as many of us turned to work-from-home and home-based learning to shelter from the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a significant uptick in cybersecurity breaches and cybercrime, illustrated by figures published by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) in the Singapore Cyber Landscape 2020 report.

While the pandemic has catapulted us towards digital transformation, criminals and other threat actors have similarly gone online. More businesses have suffered serious losses from ransomware attacks, data breaches, and theft of trade secrets.

As Covid-19 becomes endemic, cyber threats have also become pervasive. Defenders may be constantly vigilant, but attackers only need to succeed in breaching defences once.

Organisations and individuals who can detect breaches quickly, respond decisively, and have resilient systems have the best chance of surviving and recovering quickly.

If we are to thrive as a Smart Nation, all of us in society must learn some cybersecurity lessons from this pandemic.

Just like some Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic, breaches from SingHealth to Solarwinds show that intruders can enter and lurk undetected in computer networks for months before they act, using this time to "infect" other connected networks.

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Organisations should assume they may have already been breached and test their systems regularly to detect these intruders before they spread.

Individuals should watch out for unauthorised logins to their accounts or unauthorised credit card transactions.

Regular security checks (like regular health checks) can help nip cybersecurity breaches (like diseases) in the bud before they become severe.

These cost money and time but will save much more by preventing or controlling breaches, so cybersecurity must be prioritised, even while budgets have been hit by the pandemic.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may need financial assistance from sources like the Digital Resilience Bonus for the Retail and Food Services sectors; Start Digital Packs, and the Productivity Solutions Grant, which in turn can be used for some cybersecurity solutions, such as the pre-approved cybersecurity solutions under the SMEs Go Digital Programme.

SMEs can also take part in the SG Cyber Safe Programme and acquire cybersecurity toolkits to help them understand cybersecurity issues and threats, and tools to self-assess their cybersecurity from this October.

Three additional cybersecurity lessons from the pandemic can be mapped to the three thrusts of Singapore's Safer Cyberspace Masterplan 2020.

Essential services need protection

As people are more heavily reliant on Internet connectivity, the first thrust of securing our core digital infrastructure of DNS, 5G networks, and cloud services is vital.

Internet outages can disrupt our work, transactions, deliveries, and studies.

Cyber attacks like ransomware can cripple national fuel supply - for example, in the case of the Colonial Pipeline Company in the US - or endanger lives, such as in the case of hospitals in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Even SMEs such as insurance firms and engineering firms have been hit by ransomware because the tools are widely used by criminals.

Mutation of cyber threats

The second thrust - safeguarding our cyberspace activities - is important because cyber threats mutate to find new ways of infecting their targets, such as infiltrating the vendors that supply essential software (the Solarwinds breach), or new tactics (combining ransomware with blackmail) or infecting new devices, especially new Internet of Things devices.

We need to explore new tools and techniques to combat evolving threats and develop mindsets agile enough to respond to threat evolution.

Practise good cyber hygiene

The third thrust - empowering our cyber-savvy population to deal with cyber threats - identifies a very crucial element: ourselves.

Even high-tech artificial intelligence solutions can be compromised when end users fail to observe basic cyber hygiene practices.

Despite CSA's Cybersecurity Awareness Survey 2020 revealing that more Singaporeans fell victim to a cyber incident at least once in the past year, most continued to believe that they would not be victims of cyber attacks.

It's no wonder that there was no increase in the use of two-factor authentication for online transactions, and that barely half could identify a strong password.

Much more needs to be done in encouraging these basic steps of cyber hygiene. We also need to help those among us with less knowledge, education, skills, and resources, to be secure. We are all inter-connected, regardless of income or social status, and any breach of a less-protected member of the network can become a super-spreader event.

On a regional level, while we suffer by closing our physical borders, we will not survive closing our digital borders.

Since cyber intruders can enter through less-protected nations, it is in our own interests to help regional capacity-building so that our trade partners can also ramp up their cybersecurity.

Everyone in society has a part to play in cybersecurity. During this pandemic, we adopted new habits of personal hygiene like using masks and safe distancing. We must also adopt the habits of good cyber hygiene because we will not be safe until everyone is safe.

• Benjamin Ang is Deputy Head, and Teo Yi-Ling is Senior Fellow, at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies' Centre of Excellence for National Security, Nanyang Technological University.

READ MORE: Firms caught in ransomware should resist paying up: CSA