Above photo (L-R): Dr. Ikuo Misumi, Deputy Director-General, NISC; Mr. David Koh, CE, CSA/ Credit: CSA
At the sidelines of SICW 2017, Singapore and Japan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) today to strengthen cybersecurity cooperation between the two countries.
The MOC was signed by Mr. David Koh, Chief Executive, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), and Dr. Ikuo Misumi, Deputy Director-General of the National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC), Japan. The signing ceremony took place at The St Regis Singapore hotel.
The MOC covers cybersecurity cooperation in key areas, including regular policy dialogues, information exchanges, collaborations to enhance cybersecurity awareness, joint regional capacity building efforts, as well as sharing of best practices between both countries.
Mr Koh said, “Singapore and Japan have been working closely together on various cybersecurity initiatives at both the bilateral and multilateral levels. This MOC will serve to bring our cooperation and relations a step further. I am confident that we will continue to have fruitful exchanges and move forward to operationalise our cybersecurity priorities.”
Prior to the signing of this MOC with Japan, CSA had signed six Memoranda of Understanding with Australia, France, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a Joint Declaration on cybersecurity cooperation with Germany.
ASEAN Member states support basic norms of behaviour to guide the use of ICTs
At the second ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity (AMCC), as part of the Singapore International Cyber Week 2017, ASEAN Member States also expressed their support for the development of basic, operational and voluntary norms of behaviour to guide the use of ICTs in ASEAN in a responsible manner. These would take reference from the norms set out in the 2015 Report of the United Nations Group of Government Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security (UNGGE).
The Conference agreed that such norms will help to enhance trust among ASEAN Member States and build confidence in the use of cyberspace so as to harness its full potential to bring about greater economic prosperity.
Ministers and Senior Officials from all 10 ASEAN Member States, including the ASEAN Secretary-General H.E. Le Luong Minh, convened at the second AMCC, chaired by Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Cyber Security Dr Yaacob Ibrahim.
The first session, opened only to ASEAN Member States, saw the Conference agree on the importance of enhancing coordination to ensure that ASEAN’s cybersecurity efforts across its various platforms in countering increasingly sophisticated cyber threats are focused, effective; and in synergy with one another.
With the aim of facilitating more comprehensive discussions on cybersecurity, this year’s AMCC included, for the first time, a Special Session which saw the participation of Ministers and Senior Officials from five ASEAN Dialogue Partners – Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and the United States.