15th iteration of ASEAN CERT Incident Drill tests CERTs’ preparedness against opportunistic COVID-19-related campaigns

The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) organised the 15th iteration of the ASEAN Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Incident Drill (ACID) on 7 October 2020. This was held in conjunction with the fifth Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW), the region’s most established annual cybersecurity event.

An annual drill hosted by Singapore since 2006, ACID tests incident response procedures and strengthens cybersecurity preparedness and cooperation among CERTs in ASEAN Member States (AMS) and Dialogue Partners.

This year’s theme, “Malware Campaign Leveraging the Pandemic Situation”, was chosen in view of the proliferation of malicious campaigns leveraging the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as lures 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.

All the CERTs from the 10 AMS and five key Dialogue Partners from Australia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, were represented in this year’s ACID. 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 CERTs provided positive feedback.