COMMENT
S
ingapore already enjoys a
reputation for being a slick city state,
utilising cutting-edge technology
to improve the lives of its residents and
visitors, and to boost the prospects of
businesses based there. As a services hub,
connectivity and information exchange
lies at the heart of Singapore’s continued
success, and it comes as no surprise that
digitisation and the fostering of enduring
smart city ecosystems is an overarching
national imperative.
Singapore recently hosted the Hack
in The Box cyber security event, which
brought together security researchers
and professionals from across the
globe, and featured technical training
aimed at scoping the cyber risk
landscape and assessing what can be
done to minimise it.
It is telling just how seriously Singapore
takes the integrity of its digital
infrastructure given the nation state’s
firm position that digitisation is the
catalyst to its ongoing development
and success. The state also makes it
clear that to maintain the viability and
vitality of its digital transformation,
trust is central, and trust can only be
established and maintained through
a disciplined and holistic approach to
cyber resilience.
Reflective of the heightened awareness
of the interconnectivity of digital
systems, Singapore is also becoming
the educational hub for specialisations
based on managing and securing
Internet of Things (IoT) environments.
One educational institutional in
Singapore, for example, offers a Post-
Diploma Certificate in IoT Technology,
giving students ‘the core knowledge
and skills required to engage in the
creative development of innovative IoT
solutions, with access to state-of-the-art
technologies.’
The institution suggests that such skills
enable learners to develop disruptive
solutions or improve productivity for their
organisations, and upon completion,
graduates should be able to:
• Understand architecture and system
design of IoT
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• Design and develop smart IoT
applications
• Manage smart IoT projects
Not everywhere in the world is as
technologically advanced and tuned-
into digitisation as Singapore, though
the reality is given the growing
interconnectivity of digital systems with
little respect for geographic boundaries,
the level of cyber security everywhere
has to improve. After all, a globally
connected network is only as strong as
its weakest parts as has been witnessed
through the wave of ransomware and
other attacks affecting systems across
the globe.
In the UAE, which is another country
to have actively prioritised its smart
environment evolution, authorities there
recently announced the deployment
of an advanced cyber security network
to 35 federal entities with the aim to
protect government institutions from
advanced persistent threats (APTs).
Coined the Federal Network (FEDNet),
the sweeping upgrade was introduced
by the UAE’s Telecommunications
Regulatory Authority (TRA) and is
designed to serve as a common
infrastructure for federal entities. The
network allows interconnection and
data exchange between all local and
federal government entities, verifying
the pattern of any e-content, whether
an email or a website. The system then
assesses any suspicious patterns in how
the data is dealt with, helping protect
against zero day attacks.
This government-led cyber security
initiative follows the launch of a cyber
security strategy by Dubai earlier this
year, aimed at strengthening the
city’s position as a world leader in
innovation, safety and security, and the
management of cyber security risks.
The strategy focuses on five main
domains; the first being the cyber
smart nation, which aims to raise public
awareness on the importance of cyber
security, ensuring the development
of a society that is fully aware of the
potential dangers of cyber crime. The
goal of this directive is also to invest
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