{"id":15515,"date":"2021-06-14T04:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/2021\/06\/14\/technology-manufacturing-and-banking-and-finance-were-threat-actors-top-targeted-sectors-in-asia-pacific-in-2020-ensign-infosecurity-report\/"},"modified":"2021-06-14T04:15:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T04:15:00","slug":"technology-manufacturing-and-banking-and-finance-were-threat-actors-top-targeted-sectors-in-asia-pacific-in-2020-ensign-infosecurity-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/2021\/06\/14\/technology-manufacturing-and-banking-and-finance-were-threat-actors-top-targeted-sectors-in-asia-pacific-in-2020-ensign-infosecurity-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology, Manufacturing, and Banking and Finance were Threat Actors\u2019 Top Targeted Sectors in Asia Pacific in 2020: Ensign InfoSecurity Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\"><!--<a class=\"format-txt\" href=\"{baseURL}\/View\/{release.id}?_download=1\">View this article in .txt format<\/a>--><\/p>\n<p class=\"subheadline\">\n                               The report also found that opportunistic threat actors sought to exploit people\u2019s emotions and uncertainties during the pandemic by using Covid-19 topics to anchor their phishing campaigns                            <\/p>\n<p>SINGAPORE &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.media-outreach.com\/\">Media OutReach<\/a> &#8211; 14 June 2021 &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ensigninfosecurity.com\/\">Ensign&#13;<br \/>\nInfoSecurity<\/a> (Ensign), Asia&#8217;s largest, pure-play cybersecurity firm, today unveiled the findings of its <b>Cyber&#13;<br \/>\nThreat Landscape 2021 <\/b>report, which found that the <b>technology<\/b>, <b>manufacturing,&#13;<br \/>\n<\/b>and<b> banking and finance<\/b> industries were the top targets in Asia&#13;<br \/>\nPacific for threat actors in 2020. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Ensign&#8217;s latest report provides insights into the&#13;<br \/>\ncyber risks and threats that surfaced across four Asia Pacific markets \u2013 Hong&#13;<br \/>\nKong, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea \u2013 as the pandemic dramatically&#13;<br \/>\nreshaped the business landscape. It also explores cyber threat trends that are&#13;<br \/>\nemerging or will persist in 2021. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Here are the key findings and insights from the&#13;<br \/>\nreport: <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p><b>Sector analysis: Threat actors targeted the&#13;<br \/>\ntechnology sector to achieve economies of scale <\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Technology service providers were&#13;<br \/>\nattractive targets for threat actors as many organisations have engaged their&#13;<br \/>\nservices during the pandemic to ensure business continuity. A successful cyber attack&#13;<br \/>\nwould allow the threat actors to obtain the credentials of these service&#13;<br \/>\nproviders&#8217; clients, gaining them illicit access to a wide range of companies. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Threat actors also targeted technology&#13;<br \/>\nhardware and software vendors to breach and implant malicious codes and&#13;<br \/>\ncomponents into the vendors&#8217; product development systems. This enabled the&#13;<br \/>\nperpetrators to rapidly develop zero-day exploits or create&#13;<br \/>\nbackdoors to compromise&#13;<br \/>\nthe integrity of the products, allowing them to readily reach a larger pool of&#13;<br \/>\ntargets.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>The threat actors&#8217; focus&#13;<br \/>\non these sectors is a concern as organisations continue to invest in digital&#13;<br \/>\ntechnologies. According to IDC, digital transformation investments in Asia&#13;<br \/>\nPacific including Japan and China (APJC) are poised to hit an estimated US$921&#13;<br \/>\nbillion by 2024, compared to US$430 billion in 2019<sup>[1]<\/sup>.&#13;<br \/>\nAdditionally, IDC estimates that by the end of 2023, 80% of enterprises in Asia&#13;<br \/>\nPacific will put mechanisms in place that will enable them to shift to&#13;<br \/>\ncloud-centric infrastructure and applications twice as fast as before the&#13;<br \/>\npandemic<sup>[2]<\/sup>.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Technology suppliers&#13;<br \/>\nand service providers will continue to be lucrative targets for threat actors&#13;<br \/>\nas organisations become increasingly reliant on digital technologies to support&#13;<br \/>\ntheir business operations and position themselves for the future. If threat&#13;<br \/>\nactors can successfully compromise just one of these companies&#8217; systems, it can&#13;<br \/>\ncreate a ripple effect that will impact large groups of organisations across&#13;<br \/>\nindustries and geographies,&#8221; said Steven Ng, CIO and EVP of Managed Security&#13;<br \/>\nServices, Ensign.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Organisations need to recognise that as their&#13;<br \/>\ncyber supply chain ecosystem expands and diversifies, they will also need to&#13;<br \/>\ntake additional steps to mitigate the elevated cyber risks that come with it.&#13;<br \/>\nThis includes increasing the organisation&#8217;s situational awareness by&#13;<br \/>\nmaintaining a complete inventory of the software, hardware, and information&#13;<br \/>\nassets that are within their network, and those managed by their partners and&#13;<br \/>\nvendors,&#8221; added Steven.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p><b>Sector&#13;<br \/>\nAnalysis: Threat actors exploited Covid-19-induced disruptions and set their sights&#13;<br \/>\non trade secrets<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Ensign highlighted that&#13;<br \/>\nin 2020, threat actors attacked manufacturing companies with ransomware. The perpetrators&#13;<br \/>\nunderstood that these companies&#8217; production capabilities were already strained&#13;<br \/>\ndue to the pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions. This made manufacturers&#13;<br \/>\nmore willing to pay the ransom to resume operations quickly and avoid further&#13;<br \/>\nproduction disruption. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Cyber adversaries&#13;<br \/>\nalso targeted manufacturing companies to steal their trade secrets, including&#13;<br \/>\nindustrial design, operational knowledge, as well as source materials and&#13;<br \/>\nsuppliers. These types of information are particularly valuable as they can significantly&#13;<br \/>\nundermine the victims&#8217; competitive edge while boosting the capabilities of&#13;<br \/>\ntheir competitors. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p><b>Sector&#13;<br \/>\nAnalysis: Threat actors intensified social engineering attacks and sought to&#13;<br \/>\nexploit remote working arrangements in the banking and finance sector<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>As&#13;<br \/>\nthe country went into lockdown during the pandemic in 2020, there was increased&#13;<br \/>\nusage of online banking services. This led threat actors to ramp up their&#13;<br \/>\nsocial engineering attacks by faking banking websites and mobile applications&#13;<br \/>\nto deceive bank customers into disclosing their credentials. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>The&#13;<br \/>\nreport also revealed a greater increase in threat activities in this sector due&#13;<br \/>\nto the widespread adoption of remote working arrangements. More exploit&#13;<br \/>\nattempts were targeting remote solutions used in this sector compared to other&#13;<br \/>\nindustries. Threat actors were particularly interested in getting credentials&#13;<br \/>\nto gain access to banks and other financial institutions. They could sell this&#13;<br \/>\ninformation to ransomware operators and other sophisticated threat groups that can&#13;<br \/>\nfind their way into these organisations&#8217; core network. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p><b>Emotet and TrickBot were Top Malware Detected Across&#13;<br \/>\nAsia Pacific<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Ensign&#13;<br \/>\nfound that <b>Emotet<\/b> and <b>TrickBot<\/b> were the top malware observed&#13;<br \/>\nacross the region in 2020, constituting the bulk of Command &amp; Control (C2)<sup>[3]<\/sup> threat activities&#13;<br \/>\ndetected, especially in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Threat&#13;<br \/>\nactors commonly use Emotet and TrickBot as they are versatile in design,&#13;<br \/>\nallowing the perpetrators to steal credentials, obtain information to move&#13;<br \/>\ndeeper into the infiltrated network, and inject additional malicious payloads&#13;<br \/>\ninto the compromised digital environment. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Threat&#13;<br \/>\nactors frequently target technology service providers with these two malware&#13;<br \/>\nfamilies due to their capabilities to download more malware into the infected&#13;<br \/>\nsystems. Both Emotet and Trickbot were also observed to be used in phishing&#13;<br \/>\ncampaigns worldwide. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p><b>Opportunistic Threat Actors Exploited Covid-19 in&#13;<br \/>\nPhishing Campaigns<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>The report revealed that threat actors sought&#13;<br \/>\nto exploit individuals&#8217; anxiety, fear, and curiosity caused&#13;<br \/>\nby the pandemic through phishing attacks. Ensign uncovered that <b>99% of the phishing campaigns&#13;<br \/>\n<\/b>detected in Singapore in 2020 were centred on Covid-19 subjects, and that&#13;<br \/>\nthe market&#8217;s Circuit Breaker period provided an opportune timeframe for threat&#13;<br \/>\nactors to launch phishing attacks. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Similarly,&#13;<br \/>\nin South Korea, most phishing emails also took advantage of the pandemic&#13;<br \/>\nsituation. One of the top threat actor groups in Asia Pacific, Lazarus Group,&#13;<br \/>\nalso impersonated the South Korean government to announce fake additional&#13;<br \/>\nCovid-19 payouts and shopping vouchers in their phishing campaign in June 2020.&#13;<br \/>\nThe attacks were targeted at 700,000 email addresses they have illicitly&#13;<br \/>\nobtained from previous breaches.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<p>Moreover,&#13;<br \/>\nEnsign found that Covid-19-themed phishing attacks are more effective. In an&#13;<br \/>\nexercise Ensign conducted to test a client&#8217;s cybersecurity measures, 35% of the&#13;<br \/>\norganisation&#8217;s employees clicked on the simulated malicious link included in&#13;<br \/>\nEnsign&#8217;s mock Covid-19-related phishing email and provided their personal&#13;<br \/>\ninformation. This is 10% higher than the average result of past exercises,&#13;<br \/>\ndemonstrating the effectiveness of customised, well-timed phishing campaigns. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13; <\/p>\n<div><br clear=\"all\"\/><\/p>\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\"\/>\n<div id=\"ftn1\">\n[1] IDC Worldwide&#13;<br \/>\nDigital Transformation Spending Guide &#8211; Technology Forecast 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn2\">\n[2] IDC FutureScape:&#13;<br \/>\nWorldwide IT Industry 2021 Predictions \u2014 Asia\/Pacific (Excluding Japan)&#13;<br \/>\nImplications<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn3\">\n[3] Command and Control is a set of techniques&#13;<br \/>\nthat threat actors use to communicate and commander devices that have been&#13;<br \/>\ncompromised by malware. Threat actors can issue instructions to the compromised&#13;<br \/>\ndevices, including downloading additional malicious payloads or transferring&#13;<br \/>\nstolen data back to the threat actors. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.media-outreach.com\/news\/2021-06-14\/81837\/technology-manufacturing-and-banking-and-finance-were-threat-actors-top-targeted-sectors-in-asia-pacific-in-2020-ensign-infosecurity-report\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The report also found that opportunistic threat actors sought to exploit people\u2019s emotions and uncertainties during the pandemic by using Covid-19 topics to anchor their phishing campaigns SINGAPORE &#8211; Media OutReach &#8211; 14 June 2021 &#8211; Ensign&#13; InfoSecurity (Ensign), Asia&#8217;s largest, pure-play cybersecurity firm, today unveiled the findings of its Cyber&#13; Threat Landscape 2021 report, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}