SINGAPORE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Sheena Jacob, Jaya Malhotra, Sherman Poon and Andre Choo, CMS
Introduction The rapid technological advancements of the 21st century and digital transformation have accelerated the development of national cyber - security concerns globally. As a result, the issue of cybersecurity as a lynchpin of national secu - rity has moved to the forefront of many gov - ernments’ agendas. Both the volume of cyber threats and their constant evolution have made cyber warfare, cybercrime and cyber-risk the new battleground of the digital revolution. Giv - en Singapore’s position as a financial and digital transformation leader in Asia, ensuring the city state tackles cybersecurity risks is critical to its security. Cybersecurity Threats and Trends Escalation of cybercrimes Global costs from cybercrime are estimated to reach USD10.5 trillion annually in 2025, despite an estimated USD101.5 billion projected spend - ing on cybersecurity services (see here ). Singa - pore has not been able to avoid the growing threat of cybercrime. The Singapore Police Force reported an 18% increase in scam and cyber - crime incidents from January to June 2024, as compared to the same period in 2023 (see here ). The total losses from cybercrime increased from SGD334.5 million to SGD385.6 million during this period. This increase is accompanied by an increase in the sophistication of cyber scams which have escalated with the use of AI as an effective tool in the hands of cyber criminals. Surge in phishing attempts The Cyber Security Agency (CSA) identified a rise in phishing attempts reported to the Sin - gapore Cyber Emergency Response Team (“SingCert”) in recent years. The CSA noted that scammers are employing new methods to make their phishing attempts appear more authentic, such as including HTTPS protocols in
their phishing URLS or utilising more legitimate looking domains like “.com” instead of “.xyz”. In Singapore, organisations in the banking and financial services, government and technology sectors were the most frequently attacked. In 2023, 63% of all reported phishing attempts involved spoofs of companies in the banking and financial services sector (see here ). The use of tools like generative AI have also enabled scammers to produce more convincing phishing content, and the threat of sophisticated, large- scale phishing will continue as a key cyberse - curity risk. Continued growth of ransomware Ransomware remains another key risk in Singa - pore, with 132 reported cases in both 2022 and 2023. A survey by cybersecurity firm Cohesity noted that over 190 firms reported being subject to ransomware attacks in 2024 (see here ). Threat actors have targeted businesses across a wide range of industries, and the CSA noted in 2023 that companies engaged in manufacturing and construction were amongst the most targeted industries (see here ). A Singapore law firm suffered an Akira ransom - ware attack in April 2024. Although the firm reported that there was no evidence indicating that its document management systems con - taining client data were affected, it allegedly paid 21.07 bitcoins to Akira ransomware group. The incident illustrates the attractiveness of targeting organisations holding large amounts of sensitive client data, especially since victims of ransom - ware may be subject to additional pressure from their clients to pay the ransom to protect their affected data. Many incidents could have been avoided with reasonable security precautions implemented
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