IN his recent State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama mentioned cyber threats in the same sentence with terrorism. He said: "We are making sure our government integrates intelligence to combat cyber threats, just as we have done to combat terrorism."

Mr Obama is not the first global leader who has linked the twin evils of cyber attacks and terrorism and neither will he be the last. In today's Internet-enabled world, cyber security has become an integral part of national security.

It is in this context that one needs to appreciate the Singapore government's decision to create an apex agency to look after the country's cyber security, called the Cyber Security Agency (CSA). It will start functioning from April 1 under the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) and will be overseen by Minister of Communications and Information (MCI) Yaacob Ibrahim, who will be the Minister in charge of Cyber Security. The CSA will combine the cyber security functions that are now looked after by the Infocomm Development Agency of Singapore (IDA), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and a few other agencies. It will be the nodal agency to which sector leads from different industry verticals will report with regard to cyber security.