Singapore is among the world’s most stable economies, with an average 3 to 3.5 percent growth rate over recent years. Churning out a GDP of approximately $487,088 million in 2018, the city-state continues to strive for improvements in productivity, income and quality of life. To continue supporting the country’s growth through rapid urbanisation and increasing urban density, it is also crucial for Singapore to explore solutions that help the country to become secure, smart and sustainable.
The Smart Nation movement was launched by the government in 2014 as a national effort to tackle critical needs such as transport, housing and medical care through the integration of technology. By embracing and facilitating such seamless solutions, Smart Nation aims to benefit Singaporeans, government agencies and businesses by revolutionising the way we live, work and grow.
It is already setting global standards. The Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona named Singapore the ‘Smart City of 2018’. Present at this congress, Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State and Minister-in-charge of GovTech said, “Singapore’s Smart Nation efforts are about the transformation of our country, through technology. We will continue to create a better lived experience for our citizens, and these efforts must benefit our future generations as well.”
The upside and downside of a connected society
As mobility and technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) continue to change how we live and work, people and things will become far more susceptible to a wide range of threats and increased risks. In turn, this reliance on technology threatens individuals, businesses and governments as threat surfaces increase and expose data and information. This is especially true as the infinite supply of data becomes more interconnected in infrastructure and daily operations, whether that is data shared between people, machines or all the above.
One of the most urgent matters that the country must tackle in its Smart Nation initiative is to ensure secure data protection, privacy and safety of all businesses and its residents. Recent episodes of data compromises and cyber-attacks in public sector agencies like SingHealth and financial institutions like AXA insurance underline the urgent need for safeguard measures, skills development and security by design. Like any smart ecosystem, we must first ensure that government and private organisations provide trusted systems, training and business continuity procedures to combat potential cyber-related crises head-on.
Data Protection and Trust: the key to a smart eco-system
In this digital age, data is one of society’s most fundamental assets. Big data has the power to convey insights, assist in decision-making and actions required to solve everyday problems. At the forefront, data can be used to develop something as simple as cashless payments. Take for instance, PayNow, a banking service in Singapore which allows one to send or receive money in an instant via National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) or mobile number.
But, it is a fine balance – particularly for government and other industries like finance, health and online services who are facing a technology trust crisis. Millions of businesses and people trust institutions with personal and business critical data – so how can they be assured it both secure and private?
With connectivity comes responsibility – and at BlackBerry, we believe it is the economic, social and ethical responsibility of technology leaders to build security and privacy into their products by design. The ask is not a tall one. First, build products that have security ingrained in each layer of the product and commit to no backdoors. Second, respect that an individual’s personal data is theirs and do not profit from the data or use it without their consent, which must be transparently obtained.
BlackBerry is in the business of protecting data – not monetising it – and is focused on helping industries around the world to keep data and people safe, so they can get on with business. One example of this is the delivery of complete endpoint management and policy control for a wide range of devices, connected end-points and apps with BlackBerry’s Unified End-Point Management (UEM) software. One of the largest banks in Indonesia, Bank BRI, uses BlackBerry’s UEM software in their back-end management. By empowering the bank to protect the financial data of its customers and allowing employees to collaborate more effectively, Bank BRI can be proactive in mitigating cyber risks.
Tightening Security Measures
To progress towards its Smart Nation goals, information must be secured at every layer (devices, software, apps and networks) to minimise potential threats. For instance, there are ‘smart lamp posts’ in Singapore equipped with a network of wireless sensors that observe unusual/illegal street activity and climate change through functions like facial recognition, noise detection and environmental sensors. By taking a holistic approach to safeguarding our nation with secure software, we can mitigate cybersecurity-related risks, data privacy and help prevent man-made disasters.
Equipped with deep understanding and knowledge about the rising demand for trusted connectivity in rapidly growing smart cities, BlackBerry has developed several tools that incorporate advanced security measures.
The BlackBerry Security Credential Management System (SCMS) provides a trustworthy and private space that allows information-exchange to take place for vehicles and infrastructure. Through the optimisation of BlackBerry’s Certicom technology, devices like traffic lights can tally received information using digital certificates.
BlackBerry also offers a networked emergency or crisis communication platform that helps helps any industry with a duty of care to keep people and assets safe, such as government and defence, industrial and manufacturing, private enterprise, healthcare and transportation. It protects over 70% of the US Federal Government agencies, including the US Airforce and Department of Defence and is also used by education institutions such as Macquarie University in Australia to keep staff and students safe. In Canada, Durham Regional Police Services uses it for automating critical alerts, enabling it to more quickly reach out to first responder personnel beyond text messages and email.
Hyperconnectivity leading the path to transforming our lives
Gartner predicts that 14.2 billion connected things will be in use by 2019, and this number is expected to reach 25 billion by 2021, producing an immense volume of data. Putting this into perspective, hyperconnectivity is set to become the next step in revolutionising the way people work and live.
In Singapore, more and more smart technologies are being developed to assist the rising needs of society. For instance, there are medical and life support systems in local hospitals which can be activated for elderly patients requiring immediate critical care.
In such a hyperconnected world, cybersecurity is not just about protecting data, but also protecting people – the secure flow of information is both mission- and safety-critical. Because when everything is connected, everything is a target. And if even a single endpoint in a system is unprotected, nothing is secure. BlackBerry’s term for this is the Enterprise of Things (EoT), and its mission is to provide support for all organisations to securely manage and control all physical and digital end-points.
By having the right systems in place that offer solutions like end-to-end encryption, threat detection and prevention, IP/file protection and collaboration; this technology will enable secure connection with the smart eco-system and advance an organisation’s own digital transformation strategies.
The imaginable is becoming a reality. Medical devices and embedded sensors getting connected to virtual assistants who are being put to work, technology-backed secure solutions and services provide endless opportunities within realms like crisis communications; as well as collaboration through unified endpoint management which enables the security of smart cities.
Moving Forward
Fundamentally, interconnectivity is important as it lays a foundation to create successful smart cities. However, harnessing hyperconnectivity to advance these projects means ensuring fine-tuned management that secures data at every point and layer within its design.
Investing in trusted, reliable software solutions that can keep data and people safe and secure will allow the government and industry to instead focus their efforts on driving efficiency, opportunities and progressing Singapore’s goals. It also essential to ‘fight fire with fire’ with new technologies such as AI and ML that are fast enough to detect and prevent threats before they happen, protecting every single end-point.
Bottom line, as a global leader in smart city innovation, Singapore must also strive to set global standards for a ‘Smart Nation’ that is as secure and safe, as it is connected.
Amit Mehta is Managing Director at BlackBerry ASEAN