The Singaporean government published a study called Cyber Landscape 2019 that showed that there were 35 reports of ransomware incidents in the last year alone. This represents a surge in attacks as compared to the 21 cases that were reported in 2018. Most of the ransomware attacks targeted the travel, tourism, manufacturing, and logistics industries. Ransomware attacks all around the world have increased since crypto adoption has increased all around the world.
Cybercrimes accounted for one-quarter of all crimes in Singapore in 2019.
The Singapore Police Force reported that cybercrime continued to rise in the country, with 9,430 cases reported in 2019, up from 6,215 cases in the previous year. This accounted for more than one-quarter of all crimes that took place in Singapore in 2019. Phishing cases in Singapore also saw a sharp increase last year. The agency discovered 47,500 related URLs in 2019 — up from 16,100 URLs in 2018. Earlier, it was reported that a massive phishing campaign launched by the North Korean hacker group, Lazarus. This attack has allegedly targeted several countries, including Singapore.
Crypto scams increase amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
A report published by the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky revealed that Singapore had seen a significant increase in the prevalence of attempted crypto-jacking during the first quarter of 2020. Earlier the Federal Bureau of Investigation had released a report warning that cybercriminals are looking unleash a surge in crypto-related crimes. As the cryptocurrencies continue to gain mainstream exposure, the crimes related to crypto have also seen a surge. Scammers are now tailoring their pitch according to the situation and luring in victims, who eventually lose their investments. Earlier, the US Securities Exchange Commission warned investors against investing in any product that is not duly registered with the relevant regulators.
