Why Asia-Pacific must move beyond digital sovereignty

ANOTHER successful edition of the Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW) has taken place, and the attendees’ sense of collective responsibility to enhance cyber resilience is heartening. The platform that SICW provides is more critical now than ever. Accelerating domestic digital transformation has become a global norm – and for good reason.

But this laudable shift has also increased our attack surface and rendered more critical services vulnerable to cyber incidents. And the threat actors have noticed. Resources abound that document the corresponding uptick in cyberattacks, particularly on governments. As the imperative for digital resilience grows, we must simultaneously address its biggest threat – an alarming trend often referred to as “digital sovereignty”.

Under digital sovereignty, individual economies consider their digitalisation agendas purely in terms of what can be leveraged exclusively within their borders. Digital sovereignty deliberately excludes foreign and multinational resources from the many tools that can support domestic economies and security. This exclusion comes in many policy shapes.