Cybersecurity act to give Singapore authority teeth

A new standalone Cybersecurity Act that will be tabled in the Singapore Parliament next year may require the city state’s critical information infrastructure operators to report cybersecurity breaches, giving the country’s security watchdog more teeth, a legal expert says.

The bill will ensure that operators take proactive steps to secure Singapore’s critical information infrastructure, and report incidents. “We believe the steps may relate to mandatory reporting obligations, which may be imposed under the new Cybersecurity Act,” Andy Leck, managing principal of Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow in Singapore, told Asia Business Law Journal. “Currently, the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act [CMCA] does not mandate the reporting of a cybersecurity breach.”

The Singapore government’s renewed focus on cybersecurity is a response to the growing threat of cyber attacks. In 2015, a hacker by the name of James Raj Arokiasamy was jailed after pleading guilty to 39 charges of computer misuse, including hacking into the webservers of a charitable foundation and a town council, and hacking into a company’s database to steal confidential banking information. In 2014, the database of a local karaoke company was hacked, resulting in the personal details of more than 300,000 individuals being leaked online.