ISMG's APAC Cybersecurity Roundup for the Week
Every week, Information Security Media Group (ISMG) rounds up cybersecurity incidents in APAC. In the days between May 27 and June 1, a suspected nation-state group upped attacks on APAC organizations, Toyota said a recent cloud data breach impacted 260,000 more customers, an Indian power company suffered a debilitating ransomware attack, Taiwan’s YouBike promised to compensate data breach victims, and hackers stole the personal data of 40,000 Singaporean jewellery stole Goldheart. Also, don’t miss the interview on why SBOMs matter for application security.
Dark Pink Group Ups Asia-Pacific Cyberattacks
The Dark Pink APT group expanded its operations in 2023 to new Southeast Asian targets, victimizing government agencies in Brunei and Indonesia. The group's previous victims include government, military and religious organizations in Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Cambodia, as well as a government ministry in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The group uses spear-phishing to inject infostealing malware KamiKakaBot into targeted systems.
Toyota Data Leak Impacted 260,000 More Customers
Japanese carmaker Toyota said on May 12 that a cloud misconfiguration exposed online for a decade car location data belonging to more than two million Japanese customers. The company announced on Thursday that it discovered another cloud misconfiguration that exposed the vehicle data for another 260,000 customers in Asia and Oceania. The data exposure affected customers who subscribed to G-BOOK with a G-BOOK mX or G-BOOK mX Pro compatible navigation system between February 9, 2015 and March 31, 2022. Toyota has set up a dedicated call center to address the concerns of affected customers.
MPPMC's Online Services Impacted By a Ransomware Attack
The M.P. Power Management Company Limited, responsible for power supply and distribution management in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, struggled to recover from a ransomware attack it suffered on May 23. It said the ransomware attack disrupted the IABS internal IT system provided and maintained by L&T InfoTech Ltd, temporarily affected critical power supply and distribution operations, and shut the email server. The company on Monday initiated a forensic analysis of the encrypted server with help from central and state cybersecurity agencies.
Taiwan’s YouBike To Compensate Data Breach Victims
Taiwanese bike-sharing service YouBike says it will pay NT$500 (US$16) in compensation to each of the 21,000 victims of a recent data breach. It said those who experience fraud as a result of the breach would receive up to 50% of the defrauded amount or NT$20,000, whichever is lower. The data breach reportedly affected customers' mobile phone numbers, usernames and passwords for the YouBike app, and transaction information. YouBike has promised to disburse the compensation amount by September 2023.
Cybercriminals Leak Personal Data of 40,000 Goldheart Customers
Cybercriminals leaked the personal information of more than 40,000 people who set up online accounts with Singaporean jewellery chain Goldheart between 2015 and 2022. The Straits Times reported that the breach impacted customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and dates of birth. Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission has launched an investigation into the incident.
Why SBOMs Matter for Application Security
Supply chain is critical for application security because most firms rely on third-party software components. The ease of injecting vulnerabilities into open-source components makes software bill of materials a critical need, said Minatee Mishra, director of product security at Philips.