CE CSA Addresses ICT Enthusiasts at the SCS Business Leadership Seminar

The fact that it was held on a weekend did not deter the more than 180 participants who turned up for the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) Business Leadership Seminar on 22 August 2015 to hear from CE/CSA, Mr David Koh, and SingTel’s CEO of Group Enterprise, Mr Bill Chang, on the cyber security trends and challenges faced by organisations today. 

Mr Koh emphasised in his address that traditional methods of defence, such as firewalls and antivirus, are no longer adequate given the increasing sophistication of cyber threats.  He put forth that companies need to set aside appropriate percentage of their ICT budgets to ensure that the relevant cyber security measures are in place and that business owners and board members should be encouraged to include cyber security as part of their fiduciary duties to the company.  He further stressed that for Singapore to succeed in its journey towards becoming a Smart Nation, the country would need a bigger pool of cyber security professionals with the relevant skills as well as a core of sophisticated enterprise users.

During the panel discussion that followed, Mr Koh called upon the audience not to just consider the security of our own or our organisations’ IT security but to also think about the impact of cyber threats on the critical systems such as SCADA systems and the serious implications on our lives. The panel discussion was facilitated by Mr Ong Whee Teck, Partner, PwC.