Minister Yaacob Ibrahim Pays a Visit to iTrust at SUTD

Prof Aditya Mathur, Centre Director for iTrust, explaining to Minister Yaacob Ibrahim and Mr David Koh, CE/CSA, how the SWAT testbed works.

Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-Charge of Cyber Security, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, visited the iTrust Research Centre at the Singapore University of Techonology and Design (SUTD) on 8 Dec. During his visit, researchers from iTrust presented two projects - The Secure Water Treatment(SWaT) testbed and the Cyber Security Patrol.

The SWaT is a testbed funded by MINDEF for cyber security research. It allows researchers to conduct simulated cyber-attacks on water systems, reveal potential vulnerabilities and plug the gaps. It will serve as a key asset for researchers in Singapore and abroad who are aiming at the design of secure Cyber Physical Systems.

The iTrust research team went on to demonstrate how unsecured wireless printers could be used by hackers to breach network systems and steal confidential information through the "Cyber Security Patrol' app. Using phones secured to either a drone or an autonomous vacuum cleaner, the demonstration showed that hacking and anti-hacking mechanisms could be achieved in a non-obstructive manner. The app mitigated such threats by scanning for unsecured printers, taking photos of the compromised printer and sending it to the organisation's Chief Information Officer with a print job detailing instructions on how to secure the specific printer

Research assistant, Toh Jung Hui, demonstrating the capabilities of the Cyber Security Patrol project.