21 Oct 2022 | Asia Cyber Summary

In the spotlight this week:

• Singapore Sets Up Ransomware Task Force to Tackle Rising Threat on Businesses
• Hackers Target Asian Casinos in Lengthy Cyber Espionage Campaign
• US Official Sees More Aggressive Cyber Security Threats in Asia
• Medibank Cyber Attack Customer Data Held to Ransom
• Census Website Struck by a Billion Attempted Cyber Attacks, Australian Bureau of Statistics Reveals

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Singapore Sets Up Ransomware Task Force to Tackle Rising Threat on Businesses

In order to combat increasing concerns over ransomware attacks among Singaporean firms, the government has established an inter-agency counter-ransomware task force. Ransomware attacks have grown in scope and severity all across the world, posing a danger to critical infrastructure and services. The task group was established earlier this year to develop and recommend potential policies, operational plans, and capabilities to strengthen Singapore's counter-ransomware activities.

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Hackers Target Asian Casinos in Lengthy Cyber Espionage Campaign

Since November 2021, a hacking group named ‘DiceyF’ has been seen using a malicious attack framework targeting Southeast Asian-based online casinos for stealthy cyber espionage and intellectual property theft. The attack framework used by the APT is named ‘GamePlayerFramework’, and is a C# rewrite of the C++ malware ‘PuppetLoader.’ The framework includes keyloggers, clipboard stealers, plugins, remote access modules, malware launchers, payload downloaders, and more.

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US Official Sees More Aggressive Cyber Security Threats in Asia

According to Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, the US has observed growing cyber security threats both at home and throughout Asia from countries such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

His comments come at a time when tensions between the US and China have risen over a number of topics, including trade, human rights, and Taiwan's status.

The US government has long claimed that China engages in extensive hacking activities, and it has frequently cautioned other countries about security lapses caused by the usage of Chinese-controlled mobile networks and Internet infrastructure.

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Medibank Cyber Attack Customer Data Held to Ransom

The Medibank cyber attack has been described as a "dog act" after data from 100 customer policies, including personal information such as Medicare numbers and medical history, was stolen.

The hacker who is allegedly holding Medibank to ransom for 200GB of customer data has shown the company a sample of 100 policies containing customers' personal data which includes the first names and surnames, addresses, dates of birth, Medicare numbers, policy numbers, phone numbers and some claims data. The claims data includes the location of where a customer received medical services, and codes relating to their diagnosis and procedures.

According to Medibank, the criminal allegedly claimed to have taken additional pieces of information, including data related to credit card security, although internal investigations have not yet confirmed this.

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Census Website Struck by a Billion Attempted Cyber Attacks, Australian Bureau of Statistics Reveals

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has disclosed it has successfully thwarted nearly a billion cyber attacks on the census as Australia struggles to recover from another "immensely harmful" data hack. The public-facing systems were under constant attack from 28 July 2021 to 1 October 2021, where  308,735 malicious connections and 130,000 IP addresses, which were found to be sources of attack traffic, were blocked.