So far as 2018 progresses, the year seems rather promising with the exception of recurrence of “Black Monday” on 5 February 2018 which witnessed the biggest Dow Jones drop of all time over the stock markets. Cryptocurrency also went with the dive since achieving historical high late last year.

For the cybersecurity sector, no boom and bust cycle yet as the year entered the second month. However, US-headquartered security technology firm, A10 Networks highlighted to Hackwarenews on the cyber threats trend ahead for 2018.

Bigger, bolder and costlier cyber-attacks expected in 2018

Song Tang Yih, vice president Asia Pacific of A10 Networks told Hackwarenews that cyber-attacks in 2018, will be bigger, bolder and much costlier for victims.

“For 2017, spending on cybersecurity reached USD86 billion which was a humongous amount,” said Song.

Furthermore, he noted that the average data breach cost in 2017 accounted to around USD 4 million, while the annual cyber-attack cost ballooned to USD 400 billion alone. Using these past data, Song expected an increasing volumes of cyber-attacks in 2018, as hackers used more sophisticated approaches such as “Reaper malware” to breach vulnerabilities in systems for financial benefits.

More state-sponsored attacks expected

Some of these cyber-attacks were believed to be state-sponsored in nature at a bid to obtain hard currency as voiced out by Jonathan Tan, regional vice president, ASEAN and Pakistan of A10 Networks.

“There is no good time or bad time, where the hackers will rest. In fact, more so during the bad time, hackers will hack for finance gains.” commented Tan.

Some of the cyber-attacks were believed by Tan to be inspired by regional tensions among countries which eventually conducted cyberwars to breach each other systems. To Tan, Singapore is in the forefront of this battle due to the connectivity among its various governmental services and its ambition of becoming an IT-savvy Smart Nation.

Telco Operators on the hit list

Beside government networks, Tan expected Telecommunication (telecom) operator to be next victims due to its role in serving as the conduit for businesses. In his opinion, the hackers will seek to exploit Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) or Internet of Things (IOT) vulnerabilities.

Cameras and surveillance system run via the telecom network will also be another vulnerable spots for attacks to compromises corporates securities or simply to bring the whole network down to the attackers’ advantages.

The Challenges of merging various Cloud platforms

In 2018, Song estimated more corporations and organisation to merge their private clouds with public clouds into multi-cloud environments for scalability purposes. The merging processes, however might provide more vulnerabilities for data breaches and the call for the protection of personal data online is more needed than ever.

The good news is that there are already some partnership and technology development set in motions to smooth out the merging of private and public cloud. For instance, software giants like Microsoft, Azure and Google have come together to provide uniform set of infrastructures and application program interface (API) for hybrid clouds to further improve efficiency.

Deceptive technology to act as sheepdog against cyber-attacks

Despite the various threats, security services providers like A10 Networks has something in their sleeves against cyber-attacks. One of the weapons will be using adaptive, deceptive and predictive security products to prevent cyber-attacks.

To certain extent, Tan even dubbed the deceptive and predictive technology into a “Top Five Technology” in 2018. As these know-hows give security operators the ability to predict a cyber-attack that is yet to happen.

“Deceptive and predictive technology allows the security firm to trick the hackers to stay ahead of them and protect systems,” concluded Tan.

In his opinion, the digital security will eventually become a basic human right issue as our world gets more interconnected and our dependence on safe communication become close to our needs for clean air, water and food.

The post Annus horribilis or Annus Mirabilis for cybersecurity in 2018 appeared first on Hack Ware News.

The website tracks malicious cyber-attacks across the globe and consistently ranked the top aggressors in cyber-attacks. One glance on the list of top ten attacking countries, one will find the great powers of the world pitting each other for glory and honors in the cyberspace.

However, a nation or rather a city-state stood out from the rest of big countries with likes of USA, Russia, UK, Germany and China. Surprise, surprise… the city-state is none other than Singapore.

Singapore ranks 4th in the pecking order

According to Threatmap, the island-nation is placed on the fourth position among the top attacking countries. Singapore has held the same position rather consistently over the past two weeks, which saw almost an average cyber-attacks of 14 million cases over the world daily.

The first place in the hit-list among the Singaporean hackers is reserved for USA and the city-state is likely to inflict its target with tons of malwares. By computation, Singapore’s favorite weapons of choice belongs to access to malicious resources at 61.7%, followed by bot communication at 30.3%, then malicious file transfer at 0.9% and others malwares at 7.1%.

Meanwhile, the “numero uno” or first-place among the top attacking countries is conferred to Russia which infects other machines and global networks mostly with bot communications. Ironically, Russia is also placed consistently as the number one target by hackers all over the world.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Despite its small size, Singapore has proven to the best pound-for-pound fighter in term of cyber security, thanks to a long term vision and good executions. As the saying goes, offense is the best defense, Singapore has threw its weight against bigger opponents by taking the first initiative.

For instance, the country first launched a cybersecurity master plan back in 2005. A decade later, the nation established a specialized bureau named Cyber Security Agency of Singapore to shore up its cybersecurity defense and capability.

Just last year, Singapore declared its ambition in becoming a Smart Nation and the first priority drawn out for this master plan depends on the creation of a safer cyberspace in protecting key installations and services.

“Singapore aspires to be a Smart Nation. But to be a Smart Nation, we must also be a safe, cyber nation,” said Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore.

“We must get cybersecurity right, to capture the benefits of a more connected world.” the prime minister added.

UN rates Singapore “Numero Uno” in cybersecurity strategy

Having a strategic plan is half the battle, the key for success will lie solely on executions and more executions. Thus, the city-state’s showing on the field of cyber-security did not goes unnoticed and was recently ranked number one by the United Nations (UN) by possessing a better overall cyber-security approach.

The ranking survey was conducted by UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which rates countries’ cyber-security readiness over facets such as legal, technical and organizational institutions, educational and research capabilities and cooperation in information-sharing networks.

In achieving another “first”, the city-state’s accolade has surpassed US and other wealthy, developed countries like Australia, Canada, France, Malaysia and so on. In the list, US was ranked at second place, while big nations like Russia was placed at 11^th, Germany at 24^th, followed by India at 25^th and finally China at 34^th.

Verdict

Perhaps other wealthier nations have yet to create the awareness of cyber-security and thus did not channel much resources toward the sector. Singapore has uniquely seized this advantage under the noses of much powerful countries and played to its strength.

In fact, the city-state’s cyber strategy resembled the US military campaign in Iraq, namely “Clear, Hold and Build.” First, clear all existing known threats, then hold the ground with the right trainings of personnel plus hardware and finally build up a business community there. So are you game enough to join this grand campaign of cyber-security?

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