Cybercriminals have banked on the COVID-19, exploiting the pandemic for financial and strategic gain as cyberattacks have substantially increased with predominantly remote workforces and rapidly expanding attack surfaces. To ramp up defense against these threats, researchers from IntSights published a report where they evaluated and analyzed the threat vectors in early 2020, including the industry’s first analysis on the Dark Web for the pandemic.
Based on the report, the number of registered domains with keywords ‘corona’ and ‘covid’ surged to a whopping 38,000+ in March 2020 alone, up from only 190 in the year 2019. IntSights also found that deep and dark web markets are seeing an influx of different COVID-19 related products, scam templates and hoaxes. It is critical that enterprises rethink their strategy on ramping up their threat monitoring tools, and that their end-users do not take a back seat in staying vigilant for threats.
IntSights, the threat intelligence company focused on enabling enterprises to Defend Forward, today announced its commitment to advance its business strategy and growth in Asia Pacific. Fueled by the burgeoning demand for cyber threat intelligence, IntSights plans to further expand its partner network, operations, and support capabilities to extend the company’s External Threat Protection (ETP) Suite to enterprises across the region.
Based out of its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore with presence in Hong Kong and Japan, IntSights’ regional business is anchored by a growing team of experts from sales and pre-sales to systems engineering, channels and customer success. The company scales customer acquisition through its extensive network of channel partners including global system integrators (GSIs), managed security service providers (MSSPs), distributors and resellers.
“As enterprises in Asia Pacific expand their digital footprint to engage with their audience, they are increasingly aware of the need to stem vulnerabilities from cyber threats originating from the external environment,” said Michael Tan, regional sales director of Asia, IntSights. “With our further expansion, we strive to maximize collaboration with partners and equip more organizations with actionable threat intelligence that will empower them to proactively identify, guard against and take down threats.”
These solutions are great to hear from IntSights especially that the Philippines has been one of the most attacked countries worldwide in terms of online infections.
“What we do is we try to collect information and phishing attacks, for example, malware before it actually hits the organizations and provide organizations with a knowledge of what is out there and what is targeting them. We also help protect not just the devices, but also people. If there is an organization where there are executives which are being impersonated online. Anything of that sort. We also investigate that and make sure that the organizations are familiar with these types of attacks,” said Etay Maor, Chief Security Officer at IntSights.
How near and how far are we from eliminating these cyber threats?
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to operate remotely, expanding their attack surfaces and opening new doors for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities. IntSights has observed a significant uptick in both cybercriminal and state-sponsored APT activity related to the coronavirus, as groups around the world seek financial and strategic advantages amidst the crisis.
“I think one of the good things that happened in the Philippines is that some of the industries, like the finance industry , have set up a platform to share information. This is very important because by sharing information, enterprises are equipping their industries and sectors, to be aware of the current threats that are facing that sector. And be more able to protect and prevent these likely attacks. So, I think this is a good initiative in the finance industry in the Philippines. It will be great if they will also mitigate or duplicate this to other industries, like our Telcos, like retail and so forth,” explained Michael as he gave a hindsight on the future of eliminating cyber threats amidst the pandemic.
IntSights’ global customers span multiple sectors including the government, e-commerce, healthcare, and finance. In Asia Pacific, the company counts a leading global insurer, top e-commerce companies, and some of the largest telecommunications providers and banks in Southeast Asia among its new logos.
“In Japan, more companies are looking to IntSights for our comprehensive cyber intelligence solutions,” said Koichi Iwasaki, country manager of Japan, IntSights. “IntSights gives them visibility into the specific risks they face in their external networks, with cost-effective solutions and in-depth reports. We will continue to provide them with the best customer experience with a threat intelligence solution that is effective and accessible.”
“Asia Pacific is a vital market for IntSights as more organizations are looking for a next-generation cyber intelligence solution to put in place appropriate safeguards before attacks happen,” said Jason Thompson, COO & CMO, IntSights. “Our investment and commitment in the Asia Pacific market is pivotal as we continue to drive this momentum by delivering innovative, automated cybersecurity solutions and neutralize cyber threats from outside our customers’ environments.”