Rising online use boosts cyberthreats

Cyberthreats have spiralled up as businesses and individuals increasingly rely on online channels during the pandemic, say leading cybersecurity service providers.

Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky, a Russiabased cybersecurity service provider, said its system has detected an average of 429,000 malicious files a day globally after the pandemic took hold, compared with 300,000 before the outbreak.

Citing a recent Kaspersky report, he said nearly 80% of 760 Asean respondents surveyed said they are working from home.

The report studied how people perceive digital comfort zones and how the pandemic has impacted their views.

An additional 2-5 hours have been added to the eight-hour daily surfing average of consumers in Asean.

Within financial fields, 47% of respondents said they have switched to online payment and transactions as a result of the pandemicinduced lockdown as well as for safety precautions.

As online activities have scaled up, this opens more vulnerabilities cybercriminals can exploit, Mr Tiong said.

“The computer threat model has evolved since the pandemic started,” said Vitaly Kamluk, director for Global Research and Analysis Team AsiaPacific at Kaspersky.

Mr Kamluk said cybercriminals have added blackmail to their activities to ensure their victims will pay for ransomware.

Top ransomware groups have targeted multiple industries in Asean, including state enterprises, aerospace and engineering, manufacturing, beverage, palm products, hotel and accommodation as well as IT services, he said.

Among the notorious ransomware families is the Maze Family, believed to be behind ransomware attacks that leaked the data of their victims who refused to pay ransom, Mr Kamluk said.

According to him, the group leaked 700 megabytes of internal data online back in November 2019 with an additional warning that the published documents are only 10% of the data they were able to steal.

In Thailand, Maze attacked a state enterprise under the Interior Ministry, he noted.

Mr Tiong said in Asean, Kaspersky detected 831,105 ransomware attempts in the first six months of this year, including 85,384 in Thailand.

Of these attempts in Thailand, 39% were meant to prey on individuals while nearly 2% targeted small and medium businesses. More than 38% zeroed in on enterprises.

Kumar Ritesh, founder and chief executive of Cyfirma, a threat discovery and cyber-intelligence platform company with headquarters in Singapore and Tokyo, indicated the pandemic was massively leveraged as part of threat campaigns.

It was found that North Koreabased Lazarus Group planned a large-scale phishing campaign targeting more than 5 million individuals and businesses across six countries and multiple continents, Mr Ritesh said.

During the pandemic, the healthcare sector was hit by cyber-attacks without much resistance due to outdated technologies in healthcare or employees lacking the proper knowledge to manage sensitive information securely, he said.

According to Mr Ritesh, Thailand is among several countries that have become a target for Chinese-sponsored MISSION2025, a threat group that exploits cyber vulnerabilities for espionage purposes and financial gains.

State-sponsored hackers from China, North Korea and Russia were using the outbreak as a means to discourage nations from participating in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, or at least delay it, he said.

In Asean, Kaspersky detected 831,105 ransomware attempts in the first six months of this year, including 85,384 in Thailand. YEO SIANG TIONG General manager for Southeast Asia, Kaspersky