Last month’s WannaCry cyber attack, which wreaked havoc around the world, has helped to increase global awareness of the ransomware worm, said a Dutch expert during an Interpol roundtable 
on Thursday (June 8).

“The world is now aware that this is a global issue, especially given Internet of Things (IoT) developments,” said Dr Mark van Staalduinen, an innovation manager at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), during the session held at the Interpol’s Global Complex for Innovation at Napier Road.

Other panellists at the session were Dr Damien Cheong, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and Mr Derek Pak, vice-president of franchise integrity at Mastercard. While the IoT has led to technology being in-built into equipment, the designs of these equipment do not take into account security considerations, said Mr Vincent Loy, PwC’s Asia-Pacific financial crime & cyber leader, Singapore data & analytics leader, who moderated the session.