KUCHING: Even as businesses capitalise on the latest security intelligence and protections to stay ahead in the evolving cybersecurity landscape, Malaysia continues to be an attractive region for cybercriminals.

Microsoft recently unveiled its findings on Malaysia’s cyber landscape in its 24th edition of its Security Intelligence Report (SIR), an annual study aimed to improve cyber resilience in the region.

“Undoubtedly, cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues for organisations today. As cyberattacks continue to increase in frequency and sophistication, understanding prevalent cyberthreats and how to limit their impact has become an imperative,” said Microsoft Malaysia National Technology officer Dr Dzahar Mansor, in a press statement.

“The SIRv24 aims to keep pace with the ever evolving cyberthreat landscape by highlighting the techniques and tradecraft of cybercriminals and offering insights to improve cyber resilience and overall cybersecurity health of an organisation.”

With the rise in value of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, cybercriminals seeking illicit profits have turned to malware that lets them use victims’ computers to mine cryptocurrency coins.

According to Microsoft Malaysia, this approach allows them to leverage the processing power of hundreds of thousands of computers. Even when a minor infection is discovered, the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency complicates efforts to track down the responsible parties.

The SIRv24 found that between January to December 2018, the cryptocurrency mining malware encounter rate1 in Malaysia was nearly 33 per cent higher than the global average. The report also found that the encounter rate increased or decreased with the rise or fall in the value of cryptocurrency.

It pointed out that many factors have contributed to the increased popularity of mining as a payload for malware.

“Unlike ransomware, cryptocurrency mining does not require user input: it works in the background, while the user is performing other tasks or is away from the computer and may not be noticed at all unless it degrades the computer’s performance sufficiently.

“As a result, users are less likely to take any action to remove the threat, and it might continue mining for the benefit of the attacker for an extended period of time,” it said.

Another driver of the trend is the availability of “off the shelf” products for covert mining of many cryptocurrencies.

“The barrier to entry is low because of the wide availability of coin mining software, which cybercriminals repackage as malware to deliver to unsuspecting users’ computers.

“The weaponised miners are then distributed to victims using many of the same techniques that attackers use to deliver other threats, such as social engineering, exploits, and drive-by downloads,” it explained.

According to the SIR v24, ransomware encounters have decreased by 73 per cent worldwide. Despite the decline, ransomware is still a viable threat in Malaysia as the encounter rate was 100 per cent more than the global average, it highlighted.

“One of the key reasons contributing to the fall of ransomware attacks is the organisations and individuals becoming more aware of and dealing more intelligently with ransomware threats, including exerting greater caution and backing up important files so they can be restored if encrypted by ransomware.

“While organisations and consumers are encountering ransomware at lower volumes compared to the previous year, it does not mean the severity of attacks has declined. It is still capable of making real-world impact by affecting corporate networks and crippling critical services such as hospitals, transportation, and traffic systems,” it added.

It further highlighted that although drive-by download encounters globally has decreased by 22 per cent, Malaysia experienced approximately 544 per cent more drive-by download attacks than the rest of the world. The highest concentration of drive-by download pages were in Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia in the entire Asia Pacific region.

Aside from that, it pointed out that developing markets in Asia Pacific among the most vulnerable to malware.

“While the global malware encounter rate has decreased by 34 per cent, the malware encounter in Asia Pacific was 37 per cent more than the global average. Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam had the highest malware encounter rates in the region, highlighting the correlation of infection rates with human development factors and technology readiness within a society,” it said.

The report also found that the Asia Pacific markets with the lowest malware encounter rates are Japan, Australia and New Zealand. These locations tend to have mature cybersecurity infrastructures and well-established programmes for protecting critical infrastructure and communicating with their citizens about basic cybersecurity best practices.

“To strengthen individuals’ trust in technology and prevent cyberattacks from derailing companies’ digital transformation initiatives, cybersecurity professionals need to devise a holistic strategy that includes prevention and detection and response. Measures such as preventive controls as well as the adoption of cloud and artificial intelligence to augment security operations will play a vital role in building organisational resilience and facilitating meaningful risk reduction within their organisation,” Lam concluded.

Commenting on the report findings, CyberSecurity Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Ts Dr Haji Amirudin Abdul Wahab said, “As the digital world progresses, it also continues to make us more vulnerable to more sophisticated cyber threats.

“The findings of this study show that we continue to be exposed to threats like ransomware and cryptocurrency mining. As cyber security specialists, we have been stepping up efforts to spread awareness on the importance of cyber security and creating strong safeguard for our cyberspace so that Malaysian businesses and the economy at large can operate seamlessly.”