Tag: Singapore | Page 4

How is India benefiting from the pause in data centre expansion in Singapore

October 25, 2021/in Internet Security

Around the world, digitalisation in the workplace and soaring use of internet-related services especially during the pandemic has significantly boosted global data centre utilisation. There is also a rise in the use of productivity applications like customer relationship management tools, enterprise resource planning and databases, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, virtual desktops, communication and collaboration applications.

In our daily lives, we are increasingly reliant on digital devices. There are currently more than seven billion Internet-connected devices that generate and use data. These data need to be captured, routed, stored, evaluated and retrieved. With the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), manufacturers are relying on big data and data analytics to enhance the efficiency, productivity, security, and cost-effectiveness of their operations.

Adding to the demand for data services is the popularity of social media. For example, YouTube has seen phenomenal growth in a video being uploaded to its platform. Five years ago, about 80,000 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube a day. Today, this has grown five-fold to 720,000 hours with one billion hours of video being consumed on YouTube every day.

Video-on-demand streaming services and OTT (over the top) television services also require data bandwidth and storage.

Last week, Alibaba Cloud while unveiling its new server chip, Yitian 710, also announced plans to expand in the Asia Pacific region by setting up data centres in South Korea and Thailand in 2022. The aim is to tap the opportunities presented as these countries continue to digitise and transform their economies and businesses. Earlier, it had announced the launch of its first data centre in the Philippines. Besides China, in the Asia Pacific region, it already has data centres in Japan, Singapore, Australia, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

This comes on the back of Amazon Web Services (AWS) plan to open an infrastructure region in New Zealand in 2021. AWS had already announced plans to operate AWS Regions in various countries including Australia, India, and Indonesia.

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Mindef, SUTD sign agreement to build defences against cyber attacks, Singapore News & Top Stories

September 16, 2021/in Computer Security

SINGAPORE – With the growing threat of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) is seeking to tighten its defences by further training its experts and studying the methods employed by hackers.

It is doing so through a partnership with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) to strengthen collaboration in several areas, including research and technology, threat modelling and training, Mindef said on Thursday (Sept 16).

A memorandum of understanding on operational technology security for critical infrastructure was signed by Defence Cyber Chief Brigadier-General (BG) Mark Tan and SUTD Associate Provost for Research and International Relations Yeo Kiat Seng.

The signing took place at the university on the sidelines of a two-week cybersecurity exercise co-organised by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and SUTD, called the Critical Infrastructure Security Showdown.

Mindef said that recent cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, such as fuel pipelines and power distribution systems, are “stark reminders of the increasingly sophisticated cyber threats that countries face”.

“The MOU underscores Mindef’s and the Singapore Armed Forces’ commitment to build up cybersecurity expertise and capabilities against potential operational technology cyber threats.”

Operational technology (OT) systems include computer systems designed to be deployed in critical infrastructure, such as power, water, manufacturing and similar industries.

Such infrastructure overseas has been hit by hackers recently. Colonial Pipeline, which supplies about 45 per cent of fuel used on the east coast of the United States, was hit by a ransomware attack in May.

That same month, a cyberattack on Brazilian food giant JBS forced the closure of all its beef plants in the US.

OT infrastructure and enhancements have been used in projects such as energy-efficient buildings and the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s Smart Airbase, said Mindef.

The agreement is expected to cement collaboration between Mindef and the SAF and the SUTD iTrust Centre for Research in Cyber Security in several areas.

The iTrust centre will allow Mindef to test cyber defence measures and better…

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Surge in Singapore-linked ‘botnet drones’, used by cyber criminals to hack into household devices, says report | Singapore

July 8, 2021/in Internet Security

An annual report of the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore said that there had been a general increase in cyber threats in Singapore. — Freestocks/Unsplash pic via TODAY

SINGAPORE, July 8 — As more people worked from home last year and more businesses went digital, the authorities detected a sharp rise in botnet drones with Singapore internet protocol (IP) addresses, signalling that hackers are stepping up their attacks on home and office devices that are hooked up to the internet.

These could include everything from mobile phones and laptops to baby monitors and smoke detectors, experts said, warning that the rise in such attacks means that users should be more vigilant about the security of their devices.

Ali Fazeli, an information security officer at Singapore-based Infinity Forensics, said that a botnet is a “network or collection of internet connected devices that are infected by malware and remotely controlled by the hacker”.

He said that a botnet drone (not a flying device) is a “computer malware that first infects and compromises the target computer and then connects the target computer into the botnet network”.

The near trebling of detected botnet drones with Singapore IP addresses — up from 2,300 daily in 2019 to 6,600 daily in 2020 on average — was one finding of an annual report by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) on the cyber landscape here. The report was released on Thursday (July 8).

An IP address allows computers to send and receive information and can be used to identify a computer’s location.

Aside from botnet drones, CSA reported a steep increase in other types of cyber threats such as ransomware and online scams last year.

CSA’s computer emergency response team saw a total of 9,080 cases in 2020 that were related to cyber threats such as ransomware incidents and online scams. Comparatively, there were 8,491 cases in 2019 and 4,977 cases in 2018.

Botnet drones and servers

Last year, CSA observed 1,026 malicious command and control servers hosted in Singapore — a 94 per cent jump from the 530 command and control servers reported in 2019. These servers are used alongside botnet drones by cyber criminals.

Gary Gardiner,…

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