Govt To List Out COVID-19 Hotspots Detected Via HIDE System On Friday

Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin has revealed that the government will list out potential COVID-19 hotspots this Friday on 7 May 2021. The list will be published by the Health Ministry’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) – however, its method of delivery has yet to be announced.

These potential locations have been identified via the Hotspot Identification by Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) system, which relies on information from CPRC’s health database and MySejahtera check-in data. The minister explained that the variables used by HIDE to determine if a location is a hotspot include the number of cases in the area, exposure time, area size, and also whether it is well ventilated.

“At the moment, some of the large hotspots in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are shopping malls, F&B (food and beverage) outlets and bazaars,” the minister said during the press conference yesterday. He also revealed that HIDE recently recorded 1,660 areas in the country that can potentially become new clusters if left unchecked. 

In addition, Khairy is hoping that business owners can take pre-emptive measures once these hotspots are identified. This could include instructing employees to undergo COVID-19 tests, lowering the number of occupants, applying strict social distancing practices, and so on. “The transparency will also help the people make informed decisions and practise self-control,” he added.

The minister stressed that the HIDE system is intended to prevent any new potential clusters, as well as the need to implement a large-scale Movement Control Order (MCO) for areas. “We don’t want to have a full-blown shutdown, which is why we came up with this targeted intervention that is predictive,” he said.

As mentioned earlier, the government has yet to reveal how it plans to distribute the list of potential hotspots identified by HIDE this Friday. Chances are, the public will likely be receiving this crucial update via the MySejahtera app, among other possible approaches.

Regardless, with the number of cases still rising in Malaysia as of late, we would like to kindly remind our readers to comply with the SOPs, maintain social distancing, and practice good hygiene. Stay safe.

Trend Micro Detected 119,000 Cyber Threats Per Minute In 2020

Cybersecurity software firm Trend Micro said it detected 119,000 cyber threats per minute last year as home workers and infrastructure came under attack. The firm said it blocked 62.6 billion threats in 2020, up by 20% from the previous year.

Email-based threats represent the vast majority (91%) of threats blocked by the firm last year, indicating that phishing attacks continue to be highly popular. In Malaysia, 307 million email threats were detected – the seventh highest figure in Asia and the third highest in Southeast Asia.

Trend Micro detected almost 14 million unique phishing URLs in 2020 as attackers went after people working from home. Indeed, home networks were a major attraction for cybercriminals last year as they tried to compromise corporate systems. These findings and more were part of the firm’s annual cybersecurity report.

Attacks on home surged by an astounding 210% to reach nearly 2.9 billion – amounting to 15.5% of all homes. Most (73%) of these attacks involved brute forcing logins to gain control of a router or a smart device.

Trend Micro observed that newly detected ransomware families increased by 34% last year. In particular, “double extortion” attacks – where attackers steal data before encrypting it to force payment by threatening to release the stolen information – became increasingly common.

A clear example of such an attack would be what happened recently to CD Projekt Red, the developer of Cyberpunk 2077. Hackers stole the game’s source code (along with that of The Witcher 3) and asked for a ransom, but the company refused to pay.

Still, the gaming industry isn’t typically a top target. Trend Micro noted that the sectors most targeted by ransomware attacks were government, banking, manufacturing, and healthcare.