Singapore Plans to Review Cybersecurity Strategy and Laws

Singapore plans to review its strategy to further safeguard the country against cyber attacks, and may also revise its laws in this area.

An updated strategy would give businesses and people better tools to deal with cybersecurity, Josephine Teo, the minister for communications and information, said in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday. The city-state’s stance has been to assume that cyber breaches have already happened, meaning the focus is on ensuring systems are robust and there are recovery plans.

“It’s time for us to review this strategy,” Teo said, referencing a plan that was set out in 2016. She said there is “a heightened need” for businesses to “safeguard their information systems and look after cybersecurity to a higher degree, because the risks have gone up and there is also the worry that it will spill over to the physical world.”

The importance of cybersecurity has come into sharp relief over the past two years, as much of the world went into lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. Working from unprotected home internet networks, businesses globally were suddenly exposed to cyberattacks, as criminals and state actors took advantage of fewer safeguards to infiltrate, phish and scam individuals and companies. Ransomware attacks have escalated and threatened critical supply chains, including pipelines, meat producers and defense contractors.

In Singapore, the government has invested in promoting digital adoption among its people as well as on future communications technology, and there are already legal obligations for critical infrastructure networks to invest in cyber protection.

Strengthening Laws

As part of the strategy update, Teo said the government will also look at reviewing cybersecurity laws to see what can be strengthened, though this is still at an early stage. She said that beyond regulations, it is important for companies to ensure they are protected in the cyber world.

“What they need to be reminded about is that what is now worthy of being stolen is not just physical objects, and not just data anymore,” Teo said. “What is worthy of being stolen is your operational readiness.”

Singapore chairs a working group within the United Nations focused on advancing cybersecurity issues and “establishing the norms of responsible state behavior,” she said.

“We may be a small country, but our interests in the digital domain, like everyone else are significant, we do see it as important to every single country’s future prosperity,” Teo said. “We do have a very strong interest in ensuring that the cyberspace has a high degree of rules-based multilateralism built into it, and it has to be an orderly space.”

Photo: People at Merlion Park in the central business district of Singapore, on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. In the financial mecca of Singapore, technology companies have been steadily growing their footprint in recent years, chipping away at the dominance of banks in the island-state’s central business district. Photographer: Lauryn Ishak/Bloomberg

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

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