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The US-actors were probably behind Singapore's biggest cyber-attack so far, security experts say, citing the scale and sophistication of hacking.
The city-state announced Friday that hackers had hacked into a government database. health records of 1.5 million Singaporeans, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who was specifically targeted in the attack "unprecedented"
Singapore's health minister said the strike was "deliberate, focused and well planned". While officials have refused to comment on the identity of hackers by invoking "operational security," experts told AFP that the complexity of the attack and its focus on targets of foreground such as the Prime Minister. The minister stressed the hand of a state actor.
"A cyber-espionage threatens an actor who could take advantage of the disclosure of sensitive health information … to coerce an individual into (a) position of interest to lead" Hoping ", said Eric Hoh, president of the Asia-Pacific FireEye Cybersecurity Corporation.
Mr. Hoh told National Channel NewsAsia television channel that the attack was "an advanced persistent threat."
that they are driven by nation-states using very advanced tools, "he said." They tend to be well-funded, well-funded, and very sophisticated. "
Data on Health care is particularly interesting for cyber-attackers because they can be used to blackmail people in positions of power. "Many information about a person's health can be gleaned from drugs that are not safe. ;they take" , Middleton told AFP on Saturday
"Any non-public health information could be used for extortion. "
Medical information, like personal data, can also be easily monetized on criminal forums," said Sanjay Aurora, chief executive of Darktrace Asia-Pacific. A more sinister reason to attack would be to cause widespread disruption and systemic damage to the health service – as a fundamental part of the critical infrastructure – or to undermine confidence in the competence of an organization. nation to keep its safe ata, "he told AFP.
Hyper-connected
Rich Singapore is hyper-connected and seeks to digitize government documents and essential services, including medical records that hospitals and public clinics can share via a centralized database.
held back these plans while they were investigating the cyber-attack. A former judge will lead an investigation into the incident.
The Singapore authorities have warned against jumping to conclusions about the attackers.
"With regard to the Prime Minister's data and the reasons why he was targeted, I would say that it's perhaps best not to speculate on what the aggressor had in mind "said David Koh, director of the Cyber Security Agency. Hackers used a computer infected with malware to access the database between June 27 and July 4 before the administrators found an "unusual activity," according to authorities.
He defends thousands of cyberattacks every day and has long warned against abuses by actors as diverse as high school students in their bedrooms at nation-states.
Dan Coats, chief of the US secret service, described Russia, China, and Iran. North Korea is considered the "worst offender" when it comes to attacks on the US "digital infrastructure".
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