THREE INITIATIVES TO SECURE CYBER SPACE

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A news article from TODAYOnline.com, Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010

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SINGAPORE - Two thirds of businesses in Singapore have encountered cyber attacks in the past year, according to the 2010 Symantec State of Enterprise Security Study.

So, the Government is introducing three initiatives to secure the cyber space landscape in a holistic manner.

One is the Cyber Security Awareness Alliance to educate end-users and businesses of the impact of leaking information on the Web. It will create an online portal - the Virtual Cyber Security Park - in collaboration with the National Crime Prevention Council. Students will be the first to test the portal, which will feature interactive modes such as educational online gaming.

"What we're going to do is put things online, such that people can go in there in a fun way - understand it, and pick up new skills," said Ms Jessica Tan, Microsoft's managing director. Microsoft is a member of the Alliance.

The second initiative is to safeguard against cyber threats like the malicious DDoS attack. The key threat of such an attack is "its ability to bring down the infrastructure, the ability to communicate and the ability to change information. And that could have a crippling effect, especially if it affects things like first-aid respondents, like the police", said Symantec's director for government relations Ilias Chantzos.

To pre-empt such scenarios, 75 agencies will work towards improving the collation of security-related information across a private network.

The third initiative will be to build on the telecommunications regulatory framework, and a Code of Practice on infocomm security aligned to international standards will be issued by the third quarter of this year.

Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew announced these initiatives yesterday at the annual Information Security Seminar.

They come under the Infocomm Security Masterplan 2, a five-year roadmap to protect Singapore against cyber attacks.
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04:02 PM May 08, 2009

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From TODAY, Tech – Friday, 08-May-2009