The recent data theft in Singapore, where hackers stole information on 1.5 million patients during an attack on public health-care group SingHealth, has placed cyber security in the spotlight at financial institutions. The MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) asked financial institutions to boost customer verification measures, also directing them to conduct a risk assessment of the impact of the SingHealth incident on existing controls for financial services offered to customers.
Just weeks later, hackers managed to steal the non-financial data of over 120,000 customers from two banks in Thailand, the first such data leak in the country’s banking sector. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Department of Health has just suffered a cyberattack whereby data was rendered inaccessible by ransomware, although no actual data was leaked in the incident.
Reports of such cyber threats, now appearing to occur with increasing frequency, are causing financial firms in particular to renew their focus on securing internal systems to root out vulnerabilities that could lead to similar breaches. According to a recent report by global advisory, broking and solutions firm Willis Towers Watson, a full…
