The number of phishing attacks in Singapore to give up personal information has almost tripled in the last year and doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore (CSA).
The CSA said that there were over 47,500 cases of phishing attacks last year, compared to 16,100 cases back in 2018:
This mirrors global trends as the number of phishing attacks around the world spiked in 2019, the highest since 2016.
The Minister-in-Charge of Cybersecurity S. Iswaran said phishing attacks continue to rise according to hackers, with 1,500 dubious links sent during March to May, twice as many compared with the preceding three months.
According to CSA's fourth annual report titled Singapore Cyber Landscape 2019, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Ministry of Manpower and Singapore Police Force were government agencies that criminals most commonly pretended to be in those phishing e-mails and messages sent.
Unsuspecting users who click on the dubious links in the messages would be tricked into revealing personal information such as passwords or contact details. Mr Iswaran said that Singapore is a lucrative target for hackers. New-school security awareness training can ensure your users know how to spot the common red flags for a phishing email.
The Straits Times has the full story: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/three-times-more-phishing-attacks-in-singapore-in-2019-twice-as-many-during-covid-19
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