Education, cooperation, needed to foil skyrocketing cybercrime
KUALA LUMPUR: Kaspersky, industry and policy experts tackled strategies to beef up APAC’s cyberdefenses in a pandemic and beyond in the recently concluded Asia Pacific (APAC) Online Policy Forum II, a brainchild of the global cybersecurity company Kaspersky.
Dubbed as “Guardians of the Cyberspace: can justice always prevail?”, the conference featured top industry and policy experts from the region including Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications Vice Minister Nguyen Huy Dung, Indonesia’s National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) National Critical Information Infrastructure director Nur Achmadi Salmawan, Malaysia’s National Cyber Security Agency principal assistant director Azleyna Ariffin and University of New South Wales’ Cyber Security, Strategy and Diplomacy professor and International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Cyber, Space and Future Conflict senior fellow Dr. Greg Austin.
The program was hosted and opened by Kaspersky chief executive officer (CEO) Eugene Kaspersky wherein he deep dived on the latest cybersecurity threat landscape and trends amplified by the pandemic.
Particularly, Kaspersky noted the shift of cybercriminals’ targets --- from smartphones and personal devices to industrial control system (ICS) and Internet of Things (IoT).
He also shared the perspective of the private sector to addressing challenges in building cyber-resilient and cyber-secure digital transformation in APAC.
“Since the beginning of social confinement, we’ve been observing how the global cybersecurity landscape is being impacted by the pandemic,” Kaspersky revealed.
“On one hand, people are at greater risk of cyber-intrusions due to their working remotely and spending more time online.
“On the other, there are more cybercriminals, and they’re getting more skilled and experienced. In 2020 we saw unique malicious file detection rise 20 to 25 per cent a day.
“And today, our researchers are also closely monitoring more than 200 cybercrime gangs responsible for launching hyper-targeted attacks against banks, governments, or nations’ critical infrastructure.”
Attended by more than 1,000 participants from across the region, including C-level officers from various sectors, top government officials, and members of the media, the forum underlined how policies and strategies are formed in APAC, how these remain relevant and effective amidst continued shift of the region’s threat landscape, and how governments can be one step ahead of cybercriminals.