January, 2020
Singapore is embracing legislative and collaborative initiatives to bolster its cybersecurity amid an ongoing expansion of the city’s digital economy
Singapore’s ongoing liberalisation of the finance sector has led to an explosion in FinTech startupsin the city, as digital rivals emerge to compete with traditional banks.The number of such startups has risen from around 50in 2015 to more than 600 today.
Although the rapid digitalisation of the city state’s economy is creatingnew growth opportunities, it is also throwing up an increasing number of cybersecurity challengesfor both the government and financial sector to overcome.
The country’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) revealed in its third annual Cyber Landscape report in June that 90% of the fake – or spoofed – websites detected last year imitated banking and financial services, technology or file hosting companies. CSA observed 16,100 phishing URLs with a Singaporelink in 2018, up from 2,500 such sites in 2016.
The number of recorded business e-mail impersonation scams – where attackers use spoofed business e-mail accounts to trick companies into following bogus instructions – rose from 257 in 2016 to 378 in 2018.
In response, Singaporean authorities have introduced initiatives to deepen cybersecurity co-operation with neighbouring countries, such as the ASEAN-Singapore Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (ASCCE) in October, as well as a number of legally binding requirements for local financial institutions.
