The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore organised the 15th annual ASEAN Computer Emergency Response Team Incident Drill (ACID) last week on 7 October 2020. This was held alongside the fifth Singapore International Cyber Week.
Hosted by Singapore since 2006, the Incident Drills test incident response procedures and strengthens cybersecurity preparedness and cooperation among Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in ASEAN Member States and Partners.
Malware Campaign Leveraging the Pandemic Situation
This year’s theme, “Malware Campaign Leveraging the Pandemic Situation”, was chosen in view of the rapid increase of malicious campaigns leveraging the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic across multiple sectors, in many countries in the earlier part of the year.
During a brief pre-drill dialogue, the participants also agreed that it was an opportune time to raise awareness and preparedness against opportunistic campaigns.
The scenario injects are based on the Emotet malware campaign, given its prevalence, and the range of cybersecurity events that may occur following a successful Emotet malware infection.
Computer Emergency Response Teams from all of ASEAN represented
All the Computer Emergency Response Teams from the 10 ASEAN Member States and five key Dialogue Partners from Australia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, were represented this year.
They were required to investigate, analyse, and recommend remediation and mitigation measures to a series of scenarios injects with varying levels of complexity. The drill this year was well-received and the participating Computer Emergency Response Teams provided positive feedback.
Leading the exercise is Ms Goh Yan Kim, Deputy Director, SingCERT, CSA. Ms Goh said, “With the pandemic resulting in a heavier reliance on the internet, cybersecurity is now more important than ever. These exercises are essential to foster trust and preparedness among CERTs in ASEAN and our Dialogue Partners to respond to current and emerging threats. We look forward to conducting more of these exercises in future.”