Singapore's wealth makes it a prime target for hackers

The 'hyperconnected financial hub' is home to $613b of bank deposits.

Ranked as the seventh wealthiest country in the world by insurance firm Allianz as it is home to 127 banks with total deposits hitting $613b, Singapore’s status as a ‘hyperconnected financial hub’ makes it all the more a prime target for hackers, Bloomberg reported.

“Singapore certainly has attractive assets that would be of significant interest to cyber threat adversaries from across the motivation spectrum, including financial crime and state-sponsored espionage,” said Tim Wellsmore, director of Asia Pacific government security programs for cybersecurity firm FireEye.

After the attack in SingHealth which stole the personal data of 1.5 million patients not sparing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the government promptly probed into the matter and paused all projects related to the Smart Nation initiative.

Also read: MAS warns stolen SingHealth data could be used in bank fraud 

Meanwhile, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) urged all financial institutions to tighten customer verification processes and not to rely only on full name, national identification number, address, gender, race and date of birth for customer verification.

Here’s more from Bloomberg.