While detrimental to a company’s reputation and operations, such attacks also put severe financial pressure on businesses ranging from loss of corporate and financial information, insurance claims from customers and third parties and the loss of customers and sales. As digitalisation and remote working continue to be the mainstay, shoring up cyber defences will become an increasing priority for organisations across the region.
Asia’s cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving. Until recently, financial services firms, healthcare and manufacturing were the primary targets of cyberattacks. However, rapid digital adoption driven by the pandemic has increased the risk for organisations across all sectors, as cybercriminals become more sophisticated in targeting security loopholes.
This is exemplified by the rising number of cyber-attacks across the Asia-Pacific region. Most recently, in Japan, one of the country’s most popular dating app providers, experienced a server hack that exposed the data of over 1.7 million people, including images of driving licenses and passports that users submitted to verify their age. In Singapore alone, a total of 16,117 cybercrime cases were reported to the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) last year, a stark increase of 79% from 2019.
