Less than half of Singapore businesses see cyber attack, compared to rest of the world.
Singapore’s threat landscape appears to have plateaued while the rest of the world battles a growing plague of cyberattacks.
For the first-time in three editions of VMware Carbon Black’s Singapore Threat Report, only 43 per cent of Singapore businesses have witnessed an increase in attack volume. This is a modest figure compared to the global average of 90 per cent – the highest reported so far – and even Asian counterparts Australia (94 per cent) and Japan (92 per cent).
However, when attacks do happen, they are succeeding about 80 per cent of Singapore organisations have suffered a data breach as a result of a cyber attack in the last 12 months. OS vulnerabilities (20 per cent) were the most common cause of breaches, but third-party application breaches account for 15 per cent – more than double the impact they had last year.
The June 2020 edition of the Singapore Threat Report released today also includes COVID-19 supplemental research, which found that Singapore witnessed the highest increase globally in overall cyber attacks as a result of employees working from home.
The COVID-19 survey was conducted by Opinion Matters in March and April 2020. About 1002 CIOs, CTOs or CISOs from Italy, Singapore, the UK and the US were asked for their views on the security and operational challenges of COVID-19.
Notable findings from the report include:
Singapore’s cyber threat landscape differed greatly from Global and Asian counterparts in the last 12 months
Singapore respondents reported:
- Lowest increase in attack volume (43 per cent), with the global average being 90 per cent
- Second lowest increase in attack sophistication (67 per cent), a significant difference from Japan (94 per cent) and Australia (88 per cent)
- Second lowest percentage of companies that have suffered breaches (80 per cent), compared to the global average of 94 per cent
However, COVID-19 turned the tables completely
- 93 per cent of Singapore organisations witnessed an increase in cyberattacks, the highest reported across the globe
- 90 per cent of Singapore respondents were targeted by COVID-related malware
- Inability to institute multifactor authentication (MFA) was reported as the biggest security threat to Singapore businesses
- 89 per cent of Singapore respondents reported gaps in recovery planning, ranging from slight to severe
