Obstacles in the battle against cyber threats

CYBER-security crimes in Singapore, including theft of confidential business information, are estimated to exceed S$1 billion in value annually, going by various reports.

Cyber criminals typically hack into company networks, banks and finance ministries to acquire insider information for the purposes of financial manipulation, which causes a crippling effect on government and financial institutions. A 2013 Norton report found Singapore cyber-crime victims to have had the world's highest average per capita losses in 2013 - US$1,158, or four times the global average of US$287 and twice the limit set 12 months before in Singapore, indicating the growth of the problem.

Singapore has been actively building up its local infrastructure and ecosystem to combat international data-security threats, including the setting up of the Cyber Security Agency and the National Cyber Security Masterplan 2018. As increasing adoption of mobile, cloud, social and information technology drives demand for new security technology and services, analysts estimate that Singapore's data-security market could possibly grow to be worth billions of Singapore dollars over…