Last week, The Readable was in Singapore to attend the 8th Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW). From October 16 to 19, professionals and high-level officials from across the world convened at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Center to share their insights on the current threat landscape. Below are some of the most memorable statements made by speakers at the multinational event. We have also included quotes delivered at the ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity (AMCC), which was held concurrently with SICW on October 18.
1. Anne Neuberger, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies, United States
SICW High-Level Panel: Death of Multilateralism? – Future of International Cyber Discussions
“Any country is welcome to join the international counter ransomware initiative. Germany and Nigeria lead the diplomacy aspect that reviews requests for support, and of course invite countries to join. To address any perceptions of a particular approach, the diversity of its members matters. The diversity of members in terms of the size of the countries, different perspectives in terms of the scale of their digital economies, in terms of the regions they come from, and the degree of digital development in those arenas matter as well.”
2. Tupou’tuah Baravilala, Director-General Digital Government Transformation, Cybersecurity and Communications, Ministry of Communications, Fiji
SICW High-Level Panel: Death of Multilateralism? – Future of International Cyber Discussions
“One key element that underpins what we look at in our regional discussions, including cybersecurity and ICT discussions, is known as the spirit of ‘Talanoa.’ Talanoa is a traditional word that is used not only in Fiji, but in the Pacific generally. Basically, what it means is let’s convene, let’s meet, let’s sit down, let’s discuss. It has three core components. It needs to be inclusive; it needs to be participatory; and it needs to have that dialogue. Really focusing on mutual areas of respect and openness. Looking at areas of convergence and common priorities and focusing on that. Not focusing on political differences, but really on the collective well-being. This is something that we’ve all said in terms of ensuring we have a safe, secure, resilient, and accessible cyberspace so that we can truly harness the benefits of technology.”
3. Ibraheem Saleh Al-furaih, Advisor to the Governor of the National Cybersecurity Authority, Saudi Arabia
SICW High-Level Panel: Death of Multilateralism? – Future of International Cyber Discussions
“I think the various levels of cybersecurity capacity are an important issue. Sometimes when engaging in cyber diplomacy, there are countries that understand what’s being discussed but lack the capacity or the ability to engage in those discussions. In other cases, some nations do not even know about the ongoing discussions. So, there are different levels of capability and ability to get involved in discussions. This is similar to what was happening at the national level, before the establishment of focal cybersecurity authorities.”
4. Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, United States
High-Level Panel: Navigating Tech Bifurcation: The Age of Walls and Bridges
“At the end of the day, this is all an economic problem. It’s an economic problem for producers and it’s an economic issue for consumers. (…) Then the argument comes back. Well, if you build in security, it’s going to cost us more. But the problem is this: we haven’t done the work to understand the economic consequences of insecure tech in all of our nations. We know that global cybercrime damages are supposed to reach 10.5 trillion dollars by the year 2025. That’s the GDP of India, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined. But we don’t have this in a granular way, such that consumers can make up their minds and say, ‘I’m going to buy this technology because it’s secure and it will prevent my data from being stolen and hacked.’”
5. Ivan John E. Uy, Secretary of the Department of Information Communications Technology, Philippines
High-Level Panel: Navigating Tech Bifurcation: The Age of Walls and Bridges
“I think a lot has to do with human nature. We react only based on experiences that we go through. My analogy is how many fires did it take before the community decided we needed the fire station, or putting up a sprinkler system would actually be helpful in preventing those damages. (…) I think we are currently at the stage where a lot of governments, and industries are experiencing the economic cost of failing to address this component, and that’s where the private sector can come in. They can explain to us that we have good antifire sprinkler systems and, smoke detection systems, features that should be part of the design of the building before it is ever put up. But human experiences tell that it requires some fires, and it requires some people to have very bad experiences before they learn the importance of the whole thing.”
6. Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information and Ministry of Health, Singapore
International IoT Security Roundtable – Opening Segment & Leadership Dialogue
“These risks are further compounded by the fact that most IoT devices have been designed with a focus on lower costs and user convenience. Security has been an afterthought. It’s not unexpected given the market development, device development, product development, and the cycle they have gone through. The people developing them have been incentivized to focus on speed to market, lower costs, and increase profitability. These are the key considerations given by the market structure out there. So, against this backdrop, tackling security risks in IoT has never been more critical. We shouldn’t be satisfied with these devices being cheap and easy to use. We need them to be secure as well. As an international community, we need to work together to shift that balance towards better security.”
7. Kao Kim Hourn , Secretary-General of ASEAN
Opening remarks at the 8th ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity
“While we should entrust greater responsibility to our cybersecurity professionals and agencies to defend ourselves in cyberspace, we also must continue to build cybersecurity awareness among our citizens, including the most vulnerable groups in our society. Therefore, this requires us to integrate the existing sector initiatives into the whole of the ASEAN approach in building a digital ecosystem that is safe and secure, especially for women and children. Moreover, we must continue to support the initiatives developed under the ASEAN task force on fake news and the ASEAN working group on anti-online scams.”
8. Josephine Teo, Minister for Communications and Information, Singapore
Opening address at the 8th ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity
“The theme for Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship this year is “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth.” We take that to mean that our message to the world is please remember ASEAN, please take note of the fact that this is where a lot of growth is taking place and, therefore, we matter to you. Digitalization and our digital economies will certainly be one key area of growth for ASEAN, and it’s what makes this theme, chosen by our Indonesian colleagues, the most relevant one. However, we also know that cyber threats and risks pose formidable challenges to our digitalization journey. So, to reap the full benefits of digital development, we must work together to improve our collective cybersecurity.”
The cover photo of this article was provided by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA).
