Singapore Organizations Urged to Strengthen Cybersecurity Following Cyberattacks on Ukraine

SINGAPORE — Organizations here have been urged to step up their cybersecurity following warnings of heightened cyber threats globally stemming from recent cyberattacks on Ukraine following the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

In an article published on its website on Sunday, February 27, the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCert) advised businesses to strengthen their cybersecurity, vigilance and online defenses to protect against cyberattacks such as web degradation, distributed denial of service (DDoS) and ransomware. DDoS attacks flood targets with traffic and disable their computer systems.

“While there have been no reports of threats against Singaporean organizations in relation to events in and around Ukraine, organizations are advised to take active action,” SingCert said.

Among other measures, he advised companies to:

• Secure their systems and network infrastructure by ensuring that multi-factor authentication is required for all remote, privileged and administrative access
• Update systems, applications and software to the latest version and download the latest security patches
• Disable all ports and protocols that are not essential for business purposes

To detect intrusions early, SingCert suggested enterprises enable user access logging and consider using a security information and event management appliance to monitor logs and maintain visibility even after periods. connection.

Organizations should also examine Active Directory connection logs and audit logs for unusual activity, and closely monitor network traffic for suspicious communications or data transmissions.

SingCert also warned organizations to be on the lookout for ransomware attacks, which are one of the most common attacks.

He said companies should prepare incident response and business continuity plans by regularly backing up data and ensuring backups are isolated from network connections, establishing and validating a response and management plan. incidents, and ensuring that critical business functions remain operational if the network becomes unavailable.

Mr. Tony Jarvis, director of corporate security for Asia-Pacific and Japan at cyber defense firm Darktrace, told the Straits Times: “We have entered a complex new era of cyber threats. rules-based security tools and historical attack signatures are no longer enough.”

He added that organizations are increasingly turning to methods involving artificial intelligence, which can interrupt complex processing more quickly.

Organizations in Singapore that have been affected by cyberattacks or have evidence of suspicious activity on their networks can report them here.

Receive live updates as the Ukraine crisis unfolds.