ATxSG 2022: Cyberattacks ‘don’t respect borders’ warns UK’s APAC trade chief

Companies need a 'basic understanding of what risk is.'

The U.K.’s trade commissioner for Asia Pacific has called on companies to design cybersecurity into their platforms as early as possible to avoid increased attacks.

In recent weeks, hackers have been increasingly targeting decentralized assets such as crypto wallets, duping unsuspecting NFT owners into handing over possession of their assets.

The likes of the San Francisco 49ers, online card retailer Funky Pidgeon, car rental brand Sixt and Microsoft Teams have all been hit with malicious attacks in the past few months.

And Russian-linked hackers have targeted businesses in Ukraine and the west as the country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine continues.

Natalie Black CBE stressed that companies need to be mindful of geopolitics, adding, “cybersecurity doesn’t respect borders.”

“Cybersecurity is something that is going to be with us – you need to have a basic understanding of what risk is and it should be a core part of any management programs.”

Heikki Nousiainen, CTO of Aiven, described cybersecurity as a “business differentiator” and highlighted an important increase in the number of cyber risk-related officers in big businesses being moved upwards to the C-suite level.

But for small- and mid-size enterprises, cybersecurity options can be a very expensive consideration, reminded Kelvin Teo, co-founder and group CEO of Funding Societies.

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