Singapore has issued a warning to firms in the region to stay on high alert for Akira, the ransomware that is ravaging global businesses. The menace of Akira is reflected in the report that claims that the ransomware stole over $42 million from around 250 organizations across North America, Europe and Australia in just a year.
Now, however, Singaporean authorities have reasons to believe that the ransomware is actively targeting businesses in the region. To this end, they have issued a joint advisory to local businesses to be on the lookout amid the growing threat of this newly-discovered variant of the ransomware.
The warning from Singapore follows a series of complaints that several agencies, including the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, the Singapore Police Force and the Personal Data Protection Commission, received from people who have fallen victim to the attack.
Singapore Authorities Suggest Ways to Stay Above Ransomware Attacks
The advisory of the Singaporean authorities include ways by which businesses and critical infrastructures can easily detect, avoid and neutralize Akira attacks. Particularly those businesses that have already fallen victim to the attack, they are advised not to pay a dime to the bad actors.
Usually, Akira members ask to be paid in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC. That is, in exchange for regaining control of their computer systems and internal data. However, Singapore authorities have warned that this move does not guarantee safety. The statement reads:
“Paying the ransom does not guarantee that the data will be decrypted or that threat actors will not publish your data.”
Besides, there’s a possibility that these bad actors will attempt further attacks hoping to get more ransom from the victim.
In view of this, authorities have asked compromised entities to instead report such incidents as quickly as possible.
For businesses that haven’t been compromised yet, some recommendations include implementing a recovery plan and enabling multi-factor authentication, filtering network traffic, disabling unused ports and hyperlinks and system-wide encryption.
