Singapore Reveals An Increase In Ransomware Attacks From 2019

Singapore reveals a surge in ransomware attacks during 2019 by noting more than 30 cases as we are reading more in the following crypto news.

A report from Singapore, more specifically the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore or CSA, the number of ransomware attack cases increased in 2019 compared to previous figures recorded in 2018. According to the “Cyber Landscape 2019” study published by the government of Singapore reveals the entity got 35 reports of ransomware attacks in 2019. This represents a surge from the 21  recorded attacks reported in 2018. Usually, the attacks targeted logistic industries, manufacturing, tourism, and travel.

Phishing cases saw a sharp increase as there were 47,000 related URLs in 2019 which is an increase from the 16,100 URLs in 2018. The ICA or the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Ministry of Manpower or MOM, and the Singapore Police or SPF, were the agencies most commonly spoofed organizations. The Singapore Police reported that the cybercrime increased continuously with 9430 cases reported in 2019 from the 6,215 cases in 2018. This actually accounted for more than one-quarter of the crimes in the country in 2019.

A new study by Cyfirma warned of a huge phishing campaign launched by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. The attacks mainly target nearby countries including Singapore. Also, data reported by the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, indicted that Singapore saw a huge increase in the attempted crypto-jacking in the first quarter of 2020.

As per other reports, Ransomware fraudsters prefer Monero over Bitcoin because of its increased anonymity so now the victims of the hackers will have to pay with Monero as per the Sodinokibi Ransomware group announcements. Chainalysis research shows that around 64% of the ransomware attack cash-out strategies involve laundering of funds directly through cryptocurrency exchanges. Furthermore, the Chainalysis research managed to identify 38 exchanges – but did not disclose their names – which were seen to directly receive funds from addresses associated with a ransomware attack.

The report also shows that among other ransomware cash-out strategies that were analyzed, 12% of them involved mixing services, and only 6% involved peer-to-peer networks. The other methods, as the Chainalysis research shows (9%), reportedly remain unspent. In contrast to this, ransomware attacks normally involve smaller discrete sums to multiple addresses and are less publicized, thereby avoiding intense and immediate scrutiny.