PM Lee zooms in on cyber-security flaws that threaten Singapore’s Smart Nation vision

Local cyber-security systems need an overhaul.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday unveiled Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative, which aims to seamlessly integrate technology into Singaporeans’ daily lives.

While Singapore has already started on its smart nation journey, PM Lee also warned that there is still much to be done to improve the nation’s cyber-security. 

PM Lee highlighted the importance of having secure systems that the nation can trust, as Singaporeans are outing more and more of their functions and data into their computers. 

"It is vital that we have secure systems that we can trust, not just preventing credit card numbers from being stolen, but protecting ourselves from malicious attacks where there is hacking or Distributed Denial of Service attacks, you know what that is. Whether is it malware that infects our computers which steals sensitive information or possibly threatens critical infrastructure if it gets into the hospital IT systems, patients can die, if it gets into our power system, our power grid can be brought down, if it gets into our airport system, we can have a very serious problem,” he said.

He noted that there is plenty of room for improvement in the nation’s cyber-security, although there are already government agencies such as the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Infocomm Development Authority which perform cyber security duties.

“But I do not think that they are as strong as we would like them to be. We need to reorganise them, to strengthen our system and our institutions. We are studying how best to do that, to protect our Government systems, including the Smart Nation sensor systems, against cyber-attacks. But also outside the Government, other critical systems like in telecoms, banking and energy sectors. You will never be completely impregnable, but I think we need to be secure and as safe as we can be. That means within the Government we need the system and outside the Government we must reach out to the companies and individuals, to raise your security awareness in order to create a secure and trusted ICT network,” PM Lee said.

Here’s more from PM Lee’s speech:
To realise this vision, I think we have to pull the pieces together from all over the Government. We will set up a Smart Nation Programme Office.

Today, the Government departments are all variously doing their own thing – LTA, URA, MOM and so on. Our research institutes are doing their own things, R&D institutes like A*Star are doing things like helping NLB sort books at night using robotics and sensors, quite interesting programmes, but we need to bring them together.

We can go much further if we can put it together, to identify issues, prototype ideas, deploy them effectively to benefit the whole nation.

We will have a Smart Nation Programme Office and it will do this - take in perspectives and ideas from many sources, make sure that we take a whole-of-Government, whole-of-nation approach to building a Smart Nation.

To make sure that it works, I am going to put this Office in the Prime Minister’s Office, and I am putting Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in charge and I will take a personal interest.