CHAPTER 2 CYBER THREATS IN FOCUS ACTORS TARGETING SINGAPORE 22 Chapter 2 | Cyber Threats in Focus: Actors Targeting Singapore Because of the nature of cyberspace and the design of the Internet, it is always a challenge to attribute cyber-attacks to specific individuals or groups. There may be some who would openly publish their success story – such as those who post on public websites about their website defacements – but even then, they hide behind a pseudonym or “nickname” that may be hard to link to a specific individual or group. There are elusive cyber-attackers that remain at-large, after having caused significant damage or losses. For example, the attackers behind major global cyber-attacks in 2016 who remain largely unknown include those behind the attacks against the SWIFT global banking network and the DDoS attacks in the United States of America and France. These actors often hide or mask their tracks to make it difficult to pin them down physically or geographically. Some usual means of doing so include using spoofed IP addresses that may not show the physical location in which they operate. Threat actors targeting Singapore run the gamut from the scriptkiddies to APTs. Their behaviour, intentions, capabilities, are always evolving and require close monitoring. CSA studies the trends of cyberattacks in order to identify measures that individuals, businesses and the nation can adopt to better defend against similar or new threats. 23