Singapore To Take Government Computers Offline In Response To Cyber Threats

Singapore is a country which will not shy away from taking drastic measures. Not even when those steps result in cutting off internet access for government computers. This initiative will start in May 2017, and is an effort to keep sensitive data safe from internet criminals.

A Backwards Approach To A Modern Problem?

It has become apparent governments have no real defense against internet criminals. Data breaches are becoming a very real threat to any Internet-connected device. With so much sensitive data at stake, there are very little options available to thwart these threats in the coming months.

Singapore’s approach to taking government computers completely offline may seem like a backward approach to this modern problem. But at the same time, it also makes a lot of sense, since it would mitigate the risk of data being leaked.  Then again, the question becomes why they will wait nearly a full year to complete this move.

Moving over all of the data and creating adequate backups should be the top priority between now and May of 2017. Despite this decision, Singapore government will keep dedicated computers connected to the Internet. Moreover, employees will still be able to surf the Internet on their mobile devices, albeit that might not be the safest business practice either.

In total, over 100,000 computers will be cut off from the Internet entirely. This decision comes on the heels of the Singapore government facing several significant cyber attacks in the past. Albeit this move would slow down the inner workings of the government, it is necessary to protect sensitive data more than ever.

It will be interesting to see if other governments around the world will follow Singapore’s lead. Cyber security measures are incredibly inadequate these days, and it seems there is no resolution to these problem sin sight. Then again, taking computers offline in this day and age could end up doing more harm than good in the long run.

Source: Reuters

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