HELSINKI – A fibre optic communications cable linking Finland and Germany along the seabed has stopped working and may have been severed by an outside force, Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms network company Cinia said on Monday.

The 1,200 km (745 miles) C-Lion1 cable running through the Baltic Sea from Finland’s capital Helsinki to the German port of Rostock malfunctioned just after 0200 GMT, the company said.

The sudden outage implied that the cable was completely severed by an outside force, although a physical inspection has not yet been conducted, Cinia’s Chief Executive Ari-Jussi Knaapila told a press conference.

The damage occurred near the southern tip of Sweden’s Oland island and could typically take between five and 15 days to repair, he added.

Cinia said it was working with authorities to investigate the incident.

Last year a subsea gas pipeline and several telecoms cables running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea were severely damaged in an incident raising alarm bells in the region.

Finnish police investigating the 2023 case have named a Chinese container ship believed to have dragged its anchor as a prime suspect, but have not said whether the damage was believed to be accidental or done with intention.

In 2022 the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany in the Baltic Sea were destroyed by explosions in a case that remains under investigation by German authorities. REUTERS

SINGAPORE– The Cyber Security Agency (CSA) is starting a study aimed at raising the productivity and professionalism of cyber-security workers.

It may result in an outline of the competencies required of chief information security officers – known by the acronym Cisos – and their teams of security executives who are in high demand, given their key role amid surging cyber attacks.

Ms Veronica Tan, CSA’s director at safer cyberspace division, told The Straits Times: “For organisations, clarity in standards and desired skills at various roles will mean greater improvements in workforce competency and productivity.”

The study will involve industry players, training institutions and certification bodies, she added.

CSA’s plan comes as companies warm to the idea of designated cyber-security personnel, but sometimes find themselves hindered by limited budgets and a shortage of skilled talent.

Mr Nyan Yun Zaw, the first Ciso at Singapore cyber security advisory firm Athena Dynamics, said: “The industry turnover rate for Cisos is unfortunately pretty high because it is a highly challenging and stressful job.

“When the organisation faces a security incident, this is the first person everyone looks to.”

Chief information security officer, a title that arose up in the 1990s after Citibank appointed one following a cyber attack, have risen in prominence in recent years as some countries made mandatory disclosures of material cyber breaches or attacks.

There have also been high-profile cases of criminal charges taken against such officers, such as at Uber and SolarWinds.

Mr Zaw took on the job at Athena Dynamics just over a year ago when his company expanded it beyond IT infrastructure and support.

His background was a string of roles ranging from engineering, cyber security, programming, to business development and sales in the firm since its set-up in 2014.

He added to his expertise by becoming a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, a label granted by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, also known as ISC2.

He said: “We felt that there is a need to have a dedicated Ciso since we are also part of a listed company.”

Cisos spend their time securing their companies’ assets, learning new threats and technologies, and working with cross-functional teams, he said.

He added: “Ciso is a management position, so it is important for a Ciso to be knowledgeable in various aspects of cyber ranging from governance, risk and compliance to network security architectures.”

In the 12 months leading up to September, job portal Indeed recorded 48 per cent of its postings in Singapore seeking communication skills in cyber security leaders, compared to 38 per cent specifying expertise in IT, and 16 per cent in information security.

Around the same time, the number of postings for such roles on its portal dropped 36 per cent, suggesting that firms might be filling positions through internal promotions or team restructuring, said Mr Saumitra Chand, Indeed’s career expert.

“This decline may be due to the demanding nature of leadership positions like Cisos, which require high levels of expertise and specialisation,” he said.

To help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or non-profit organisations that cannot afford designated security personnel, CSA launched its CISO-as-a-Service (CISOaaS) scheme in February 2023.

It has received about 200 applications so far.

Organisations tapping the scheme can use CSA’s panel of 19 vendors to audit their cyber health and guide them to attain CSA’s Cyber Essentials and Cyber Trust marks, with up to 70 per cent subsidies.

CSA is planning updates to the two marks to reflect new risks in cloud, operational technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI), said Ms Tan.

Digital agency Digipixel, which has used CISOaaS, said achieving both trust marks helped it gain trust from customers.

Its director, Mr Leon Tan, said: “Pooled services can sometimes lack industry-specific context, but our collaboration with CSA has been a productive exchange.”

Mr Dave Gurbani, chief executive at CyberSafe, an appointed vendor, said: “We start by conducting a cyber-security health plan, like a doctor’s check-up.”

The firm then helps its mostly SME clients work through their internal controls, configurations, policies, and training to pass the audits for CSA’s marks.

“Many SMEs still think of cyber security in terms of anti-virus tools or maybe a firewall. To put it simply, that’s like thinking you’re ready for the day just because you have your socks and shoes on,” Mr Gurbani said.

Gaps that frequently show up include outdated systems, misconfigurations from third-party vendors, and weak access controls like shared passwords and lack of Multi-Factor Authentication.

“Without guidance, these vulnerabilities can be hard to recognise and fix,” Mr Gurbani added.

Another vendor, Momentum Z, takes firms calling on the CISOaaS service through a three-pronged assessment of employees’ cyber-security basics, company’s processes and policies, and cyber-security infrastructure such as firewall, antivirus, back-up data use and endpoint security.

Chief executive Shane Chiang said he has had clients that have not changed passwords for six years, or who had been granting external vendors remote access to their network with no inkling.

He said: “’Clients are often surprised to learn the vulnerabilities in their systems, which reinforces the importance of having a Ciso to bring structure and foresight into cyber security.”

CSA’s 2023 cyber security health survey released in March noted that only one in three organisations have fully implemented at least three of CSA’s five categories of recommended measures.

More organisations need help with knowing what data they have, where the data is stored and how to secure the data, CSA’s Ms Tan said. Businesses are also weak at safeguarding their systems and networks against malicious software, as well as guarding access to data and services.

She urged more organisations to tap CSA’s tools to up their game, adding: “Unless all essential measures are adopted, organisations are still exposed to unnecessary cyber risks, especially as they accelerate digitalisation and adopt fast-evolving technologies such as AI.

“Partial adoption of measures is inadequate.”

WASHINGTON – The woman who dubbed herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street” and “Razzlekhan” in rap videos was ordered to serve 18 months behind bars for helping her hacker husband launder cryptocurrency he stole from the Bitfinex exchange.

Heather Morgan, 34, was sentenced on Nov 18 in Washington federal court. Last week, her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, got five years in prison for his role in the scheme, which stemmed from his 2016 hack of the exchange and the theft of Bitcoin currently worth billions of dollars. Both pleaded guilty last year.

Morgan wasn’t involved in the hack, and her husband said he recruited her to help hide the loot he’d stolen. They could have faced more prison time, but he agreed to aid the United States in other crypto prosecutions and she persuaded him to cooperate with the authorities.

The Verge, which called her “crypto’s most embarrassing rapper”, said she made crypto-themed rap videos under the name Razzlekhan. The whole story is expected to be immortalized in a Netflix documentary series and a film called Dutch & Razzlekhan, the tech news website said.

According to prosecutors, Morgan and Lichtenstein engaged in complex money-laundering techniques, including creating accounts under fictitious identities, moving the stolen proceeds in small amounts, and breaking up the trail of transactions by depositing and withdrawing funds from crypto exchanges and darknet markets. They purchased nonfungible tokens, gold and Walmart gift cards, court records show. 

At the time of the hack, the stolen Bitcoin was worth about US$71 million (S$95 million). Now it’s valued in the billions of dollars as the price of Bitcoin has surged from US$580 to more than US$90,000. The couple laundered 21 per cent of what was stolen in the Bitfinex hack, according to the government. BLOOMBERG