Govts should focus on cybersecurity education, not militarization

Governments should spend more time and effort educating citizens and other countries on existing online threats and forge partnerships with private sector organizations rather than militarize the cyber arena.

According to Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's minister for information, communications and the arts (MICA), the ICT environment has become very dynamic with constantly emerging technologies. These include mobile devices and on-demand, cloud-based resources which are increasingly being adopted by individuals and organizations, he said. The minister was speaking at the Information Security Seminar 2012 held here on Wednesday.

While these new technologies help increase business efficiency, they also open organizations up to security threats, Ibrahim pointed out. The increasing number of cyberattacks globally, driven by well-resourced hacktivist groups and organized cybercriminal groups with government links, mean that critical infrastructure are now at risk of being breached.