The latest data from Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) has uncovered more than two million incidents which originated from servers located in Singapore in the second quarter of 2019.

This places Singapore at 11th place globally when it comes to locations with the most number of incidents caused by servers hosted in the country.

The report also found that 2,141,642 local incidents on the computers, and that a third (33.6%) of users in this country were almost infected by local threats during this period. In terms of web threats, Kaspersky detected 1,300,197 different Internet-borne cyberthreats on the computers of KSN participants in Singapore, with 12.8% of users were attacked by web-borne threats during Q2 2019.

“As one of Asia’s top digital nations, it is unsurprising that Singapore has become a key target for hackers to perpetrate attacks through the country’s well-developed IT infrastructure,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager at Kaspersky, Southeast Asia, “To develop a robust cybersecurity strategy and overcome such challenges, we need to further build on the nation’s capacity for public-private partnerships so there can be a concerted effort in addressing such issues.”

For companies, Kaspersky recommends the following:

  • Educating employees about the risks – like the basic rule to not open emails from people they do not know as well as attachments or links.
  • Advocating good password habits in the workforce including using unique passwords and keeping it safe from anyone’s access.
  • Setting up tiered levels of access, giving permission only to those who need it on each level.
  • Conducting regular cybersecurity training which will deliver knowledge on latest threats and more importantly to improve employee habits and form new behaviour patterns for a safer work environment.