An Insight into the Singapore Cybersecurity Expert Mission by Professor Madeline Carr, Research Institute in Socio-technical Cyber Security (RISCS)
This perspective is one in a series of blogs from experts of the cyber innovation environment.
Related events
The blogs follow on from Cybersecurity Global Expert Missions and the outcomes will be presented and shared on our webinar in July.
We hope you can join us! Details are below.
Strengthening Cybersecurity Collaborations – Outcomes from missions to Singapore, Israel & USA, Online Webinar, 7 July 2020, 11am (UK time)
Between June 2018 and October 2019, three Global Expert Missions took place to Singapore, the USA and Israel to better understand their research and innovation landscapes and to establish potential opportunities for collaboration in the cybersecurity sector. This webinar will present the findings and insights from delegates and allow attendees to pose questions to a panel. It will provide a holistic and wide viewpoint of the capabilities identified during the Global Expert Missions and will showcase key opportunities for UK businesses who may be interested in international collaboration. We hope you can join us for this fantastic networking opportunity.
For more information and to register, click here.
Overview
Following the Expert Missions, Madeline Carr tells us about her experience in the cyber innovation environment:
Last October, I was fortunate to join Innovate UK’s delegation of cybersecurity specialists on a knowledge exchange mission to Singapore. Over the course of a week, we met with many government officials, private companies, start-up incubators, and academics to discuss possible collaborations on a wide range of cybersecurity issues.
Singapore is something of a launch pad for cybersecurity actors hoping to join the rapidly expanding Southeast Asian market. There is plenty of investment at all levels there and some excellent facilities, including CYSREN at NTU where they have a number of critical infrastructure sandpits including a water treatment plant. In addition to universities and large corporations, there is also a very interesting cultural shift taking place In Singapore – with younger people turning away from more conventional career paths and towards more entrepreneurial ventures.
What was particularly Interesting to me (as Director of RISCS) was that cybersecurity is still largely regarded in Singapore as a science and technology issue – with little investment in the human factors that have come to be recognised as so important In the UK and other places. This looks set to change with the establishment of the S$30M ASEAN-Singapore Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (ASCCE). The ASCCE will have three principal functions; serving as a cyber think-tank and training centre, hosting the cyber security incident response team, and a providing a cyber range for training. It will conduct research into some of the really challenging and important problems we face in coordinating international law, cyber policy, regulation and legislation. This focus will be a natural point for collaboration between sociotechnical cybersecurity researchers in the UK and those in Singapore.
As a result of the visit, we did have plans for a return visit, taking some colleagues from PETRAS who work on the cybersecurity of the Internet of Things to develop collaborations but this was unfortunately curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Once air travel opens up again, we will certainly be looking for ways to work together, particularly on the international political dimension with academics like Benjamin Ang and his team at the RSIS at NTU and also on the security of IoT consumer devices with the CYSREN team.
Contact Details
Professor of Global Politics and Cyber Security at UCL
About Global Expert Missions
Innovate UK’s Global Missions Programme is one of its most important tools to support the UK’s Industrial Strategy’s ambition for the UK to be the international partner of choice for science and innovation. Global collaborations are crucial in meeting the Industrial Strategy’s Grand Challenges and will be further supported by the launch of a new International Research and Innovation Strategy. The Global Expert Missions, led by the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), play an important role in building strategic partnerships, providing deep insight into the opportunities for UK innovation and shaping future programmes.