KUALA LUMPUR: A multi-layered cybersecurity defence system is necessary for enterprises to protect business-critical data and networks to keep up with the ever-evolving ransomware landscape in Malaysia, said cybersecurity software company Trend Micro.
In a statement today, it said the government, healthcare and manufacturing industries are seen to be most targeted by ransomware in the country as these sectors continue to play a role in driving economic growth.
“In just the first four months of 2021, Trend Micro’s research team detected 22,428 ransomware threats in Malaysia.
“In order to keep up with the ever-evolving ransomware landscape, Malaysian organisations must maintain IT hygiene factors by ensuring proactive countermeasures, such as monitoring features, backups, and training in security skills are in place to enable early detection,” said the company.
Trend Micro also suggested that organisations should work with the right security partners by clearly defining the needs and priorities around enterprise security in an organisation, as well as collaborate with a security vendor to create a solid security response playbook to be used on an ongoing basis.
“Organisations need to have visibility over all security layers to detect suspicious activity early on to respond faster to attacks, and therefore, organisations should utilise tools such as the Trend Micro Vision One, which collects and automatically correlates data across email, endpoints, servers, cloud workloads and networks.
“While an organisation can eventually recover its data or financial resources post-attack, the loss of trust among customers and partners will be a difficult challenge to remedy,” it said.
Trend Micro opined that all stakeholders should collaborate, invest in proper resources, and take proactive steps to transform workplace culture and best practices in order to stop pernicious ransomware threats at the door.
According to its research, criminals take four steps to personalise the attacks, namely organise alternative access to victim’s network such as through a supply chain attack; determine most valuable assets and processes that could potentially yield the highest possible ransom amount for each victim; take control of valuable assets, recovery procedures, and backups; as well as steal and threaten to expose confidential data.
-Bernama
