Cyber-attacks on Singapore increase during Kim-Trump summit

Some 40,000 attacks were launched on Singapore from 11:00 p.m. through 8:00 p.m. Singapore time on June 12, cybersecurity researchers at F5 Networks and their data partner Loryka reported. On that day, Singapore received 4.5 times more attacks than the US or Canada and since it is not typically a top attack destination country, this anomaly is being brought into connection with the meeting of US President Donald Trump and North Korean President Kim Jong-un in the state. According to the researchers, Russia accounted for 88% of the attacks, Brazil for 8% and Germany for 2%, but no evidence tying this attacking activity to nation-state-sponsored attacks was uncovered. The attacks targeted VoIP phones and IoT devices, with 92% of attacks detected being reconnaissance scans searching for vulnerabilities and 8% attacks exploiting vulnerabilities. The only countries F5 Networks detected launching SIP attacks were Russia and Brazil. Later, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) refuted these findings, stating that the numbers “are a result of increased scanning activities on network ports and are not reflective of the occurrence of cyberattacks linked to the Summit”.