The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) has announced new initiatives under its SG Cyber Safe Programme to help local enterprises enhance their cyber defence.
One of them is the SG Cyber Safe Cybersecurity Toolkits.
The toolkit for enterprise leaders and small and medium enterprise (SME) owners aims to simplify cybersecurity and enable business leaders to make informed trade-offs between security, system usability and cost.
It will focus on the business reasons for leaders and SME owners to invest in cybersecurity, such as rationalising investment in cybersecurity. It will also provide guidance on cultivating cybersecurity leadership and for employee cybersecurity education.
Meanwhile, the toolkit for employees can serve as an employee programme for raising awareness and conducting cybersecurity training.
Since employees are the first line of defence, the toolkit encourages employees to self-serve and learn about cybersecurity to stay cyber safe at work as well as in their private life.
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The content of the toolkit addresses the most common cyber threats faced by employees, including phishing and weak cybersecurity practices like using compromised and weak passwords.
The other initiative is the SG Cyber Safe Partnership Programme, which will see CSA collaborating with the industry on cybersecurity outreach.
Under the programme, enterprises can develop training content, products and services, or community outreach programmes to raise awareness and encourage the adoption of good cybersecurity practices by businesses and the public.
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Partnering organisations are classified under two categories: SG Cyber Safe “Advocate” and “Member”.
Advocates would typically have a greater and deeper level of collaborations with CSA – such as working with CSA on existing community outreach programmes – than Member organisations.
Huawei Technologies is one of the "Advocate" organisations.
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Foo Fang Yong, CEO of Huawei International notes that as more enterprises go digital, they risk greater exposure to cyber threats.
As such, they must be well-equipped with the tools and knowledge to mitigate cyber threats such as ransomware and supply chain attacks.
"Creating a safe cyberspace and robust digital economy requires collaboration among all players and stakeholders in the community," he adds.
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Besides Huawei, CSA has secured the support of 18 other partners to date– comprising global and local business organisations, trade associations and societies – under the programme. Partners include AIG Asia Pacific Insurance, Google Singapore, Mastercard Asia/Pacific, Singapore Business Federation, The Law Society of Singapore, and V-Key.
Some examples of the collaborations and contributions by pioneer SG Cyber Safe partners are:
- The Mastercard Trust Centre, which helps SMEs defend their business against cybercrime through free online access to trusted cybersecurity research, education, resources and tools. This is synergistic with CSA’s efforts in helping small enterprises to improve their cybersecurity.
- V-Key’s initiative to contextualise its identity solution as a multi-factor authentication solution for SMEs, aligning it to CSA’s efforts of encouraging the adoption of multi-factor authentication to protect high-value accounts.
- Singapore Business Federation’s collaboration with CSA to reach out to their business community through events, webinars and curated content to enhance the cybersecurity awareness of SMEs.
“The government alone cannot reach out to all businesses to encourage them to strengthen their cyber resilience. Private-public collaboration is therefore key to ensuring that businesses stay cyber-secure,” says Tan Kiat How, Singapore’s Minister of State for Communications and Information.
“We welcome other industry partners who are keen to work with CSA to drive cybersecurity awareness, shift attitudes and encourage adoption amongst enterprises in their digitalisation journeys,” he adds.
The SG Cyber Safe Programme is one of the major initiatives under CSA’s Safer Cyberspace Masterplan.
Launched at SICW 2020, the Masterplan aims to bring up the general level of cybersecurity awareness and drive the adoption of good cyber practices by individuals, businesses and the larger community.
Photo: Unsplash
