Singapore’s Unique Approach to Manage Cybersecurity
How Singapore Became a Cybersecurity Mastermind
I’m currently waiting for my flight home at Singapore’s Changi Airport and reflect on my final business trip for this year.
Originally, I came into the country with the following questions in my head (next to my teams’ business):
1) How does Singapore as a country and developed economy deal with the rise of cyber threats?
2) How does the country compete in the emerging cybersecurity domain among emerging economies in ASEAN?
My takeaways
1) Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) published in 2021 its national strategy to fight cyber risks and cyber threats. It basically consists of two foundational enabler:
- Building and maintaining a vivid cybersecurity ecosystem
- Invest in creating and attracting a constant flow of talents in the cybersecurity industry
Based on these foundations, they stablished three strategic pillars which are built upon:
- Build a resilient infrastructure
- Build and enabling safer digital spaces
- Expand international collaboration
What I specifically endorse it the close collaboration of Singapore’s economy and government. Temasek as the state holding company owned by the government has a large footprint in enabling cybersecurity initiatives, also through its subsidiary ISTARI Global. Their key focus lies on advising, educating and investing in the cybersecurity domain which highly contributes to the strategic pillars and enablers above.
2) With the aspiration to build a vibrant cybersecurity ecosystem, Singapore aims to become an international recognised hub for cybersecurity, security services and training. Having a strong focus on attract and retain talents in that space will become a key area subsequently.
In my view this is the right approach, also to underline Singapore’s USP compared to emerging economies in ASEAN like Indonesia or Vietnam. Cybersecurity by nature is hard to commoditize and to build a comparable ecosystem requires a lot of invest upfront. Emerging economies are (not yet) at this point, so Singapore has a significant head start and also the economy to build on.
About Tobias Faiss
Tobias is a Senior Engineering Manager, focusing on applied Leadership, Analytics and Cyber Resilience. He has a track record of 18+ year in managing software-projects, -services and -teams in the United States, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. He currently leads several multinational teams in Germany, India, Singapore and Vietnam. Also, he is the founder of the delta2 edventures project where its mission is to educate students, IT professionals and executives to build a digital connected, secure and reliable world and provides training for individuals.
Tobias’ latest book is ‘The Art of IT-Management: How to Successfully Lead Your Company Into the Digital Future’. You can also contact him on his personal website tobiasfaiss.com
