Internet of Threats: Cloud accounts are targeted by cybercriminals

During the release of Microsoft’s regional security intelligence findings, CyberSecurity Malaysia’s CEO, Dato’ Dr. Haji Amirudin bin Abdul Wahab, shared that the Internet of Things or IoT, could actually also mean the Internet of Threats.

He was referring to how the unstoppable evolution of technology and trends, is introducing new convenient and efficient ways of doing things, but is also introducing more vulnerabilities and risk of cyberattacks.

This is to the point that when assessing the global risk landscape, cyberthefts and cyberfrauds have moved up the ranks to becoming the top 5 global threat of 2017, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Cyber fraud and cyber theft is a new entry this year in the WEF’s report, a sharper and more fine-tuned definition of “cyber attacks” which has appeared in the top 5 in previous years. This year, it is up there in the high ranks along with other perceived global risks like natural disasters, large terrorist attacks, extreme weather, and involuntary migration.

(L-R:) Dr. Dzahar and Dato’ Dr. Amirudin

When Microsoft launched their global Security Intelligence Report (SIR) Volume 22, it was also revealed that Malaysia is one of the countries with a growing malware encounter, topping even the global average.

Other notable findings

Microsoft’s bi-annual Security Intelligence Report (SIR), provides in-depth data and insights into the global threat landscape.

Microsoft’s National Technology Officer, Dr. Dzahar Mansor, said, “Being a provider of hyperscale cloud solutions, we have scale of source of data, with over 200 cloud services worldwide, providing updates for over 1 billion Windows devices, analysis of over 200 billion emails and scanning over 18 billion Bing web pages.”

This gives unique visibility into software vulnerabilities, exploits, malware and web-based attacks.

The report also highlighted two trends happening around the world today. First, is that ransomware attacks are on the rise. Second is the rise in popularity of cloud accounts and services.

More data and digital assets are being stored in the cloud, and cybercriminals are taking advantage of this fact to launch more attacks on cloud services.

Microsoft also discovered there is 300-percent increase in cloud managed accounts, being attacked.

Recognising this, Microsoft’s cloud, Azure has the largest compliance portfolio, taking into consideration regulation and certifications for industry standards, regional standards and U.S. standards.

Dr. Dzahar said, “To achieve end-to-end trust and security, we have to work together… there has to be collaboration between businesses, users and the government, because there are a lot of aspects to be covered from the people and policy standpoint.”

He concluded that Microsoft has been dealing in security for a number of years, and that their collaboration with CSM works well, in terms of protecting Malaysians in cyberspace.

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