Singapore Steps Up Cyber-Crime Battle

Tom Burroughes

10 September 2018

Singapore’s main financial regulator is seeking views from wealth managers and other financial services firms on its measures to thwart cyber-attackers, a growing menace in recent years. It wants to make a set of security rules legally binding. A consultation on the ideas runs until 5 October.

The consultation is focused on the measures the , a US-based organisation exploring security and related issues, the global average cost of a data breach has this year risen by 6.4 per cent from a year ago to $3.86 million. The average cost for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information also increased by 4.8 per cent year-over-year to $148. The institute’s 2018 Study on Global Megatrends in Cybersecurity, based on comments from 1,100 industry figures, showed that 67 per cent believe cyber extortion, such as ransomware, will increase in frequency and payout. Less than half of IT security practitioners surveyed believe they can protect their organisations from cyber threats. That is down from 59 per cent three years ago.

Among recent incidents was that affecting British Airways. Customers of BA were left having to cancel their credit cards after a 15-day data breach compromised around 380,000 card payments. The airline said that criminal activity had compromised the personal and financial details of clients. The number of payments compromised could run to up to 400,000 people (source: Daily Telegraph, 6 September). “British Airways is investigating, as a matter of urgency, the theft of customer data from its website, ba.com and the airline’s mobile app. The stolen data did not include travel or passport details,” the airline said, while not disclosing the number of accounts breached.

In 2014, 76 million JP Morgan client accounts were breached, although the bank at the time said it found no evidence of theft.