Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, at the opening of Singtel’s Cyber Security Institute. Photo credit: Singtel.
Singaporean telco Singtel wants to build a wall. Unlike Donald Trump’s lofty architectural plans, however, Singtel’s wall aims to keep out cyber criminals. The company today announced the launch of the Singtel Cyber Security Institute (whose acronym is, rather awesomely, CSI), which will be permanently housed in a 10,000-square-foot (929-square-meter) space in the Lion City.
The institute will double as an educational facility and a cyber range – a very cool way to describe a virtual environment where training for cyber warfare and development of cyber security tech take place.
More than 85 percent of companies in Singapore do not have robust cyber response plans.
The aim is to test new technology and train companies to respond to cyber threats, using state-of-the-art equipment. It’s not clear how much these services will cost the companies.
The educational component will target board members and senior executives of companies, as well as technical and operational staff. Executives will be trained in cyber threat awareness, risk management, business continuity planning, and crisis communications preparation. The technical people will hone their defense and response skills.
“Based on our engagements with companies in Singapore, more than 85 percent do not have robust cyber response plans nor the opportunity to conduct realistic drills to test and sharpen such plans,” says Bill Chang, CEO of Group Enterprise at Singtel, in a statement. “This lack of cyber preparedness is worsened by the severe global shortfall of trained cyber security experts, which Forbes puts at some 1 million in 2016.”
“Cyber security is no longer just a technical issue to be tackled only at the operational level. It needs to involve all levels within an organization including boards and C-suite management, and even external stakeholders such as regulators,” he adds.
Singtel is working with Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority and the Cyber Security Agency to help train IT professionals in cyber security with a program called CSAT (Cyber Security Associates and Technologists). This will help newly minted professionals, equipping them with basic cyber security skills, and experienced tech people who want to build on their expertise in this space.
Editing by Steven Millward and Meghna Rao
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