September 21, 2021

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EXCLUSIVE: OpenGovLive! Virtual Breakfast Insight: – Cyber Security Readiness in Thailand’s Critical Infrastructure

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Riding the current digital wave, many companies are changing their operating processes and moving to a more digitalised environment. Along with this transition, comes a host of new cyber threats. Digital transformation and hyper-convergence also create unintentional gates for risks, vulnerabilities, and attacks.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed businesses to cyber-attacks and data breaches and malicious cyber actors who exploit working models in the new normal, where many businesses operate remotely.

Companies may be unaware of and are not prepared for these events with a suitable plan in place.

Security, along with wealth and sustainability is one of the three key aspects of the Thailand 4.0 Plan. It strongly encourages businesses to alter their cyber safety strategies to implement more protective measures. Nonetheless, the Thai government remains deeply committed to cyber resilience and works closely with businesses to ensure they deploy rigorous measures.

With first-hand experience and lessons from others, organisations are becoming increasingly aware of their vulnerability to cyber-attacks that could paralyse the company or destroy IT systems permanently.

Business continuity plans could use a cyber-resilience strategy that can help to cope with disruptive cyber incidents. Typically, the plans include means to protect critical applications and data against such risks and to recover from infringement or malfunction in a controlled and measurable way.

To withstand and thrive during these numerous threats, firms have recognised that they need to do more than build a reliable infrastructure for growth and data protection. Now businesses develop holistic continuity plans that can maintain their business operations, protect data, protect the brand, retain customers – and ultimately help to lower total operating costs over the long run.

The implementation of a business continuity plan will then reduce downtime and improve business continuity, IT crisis recovery, corporate crisis management capacity, and regulatory compliance in a sustainable way.

This was the focal point of the OpenGovLive! Virtual Breakfast Insight on 2 September 2021 – a closed-door, invitation-only, interactive session with digital executives from Thailand’s top enterprise organisations. Resonating the objective of imparting the current advancements in Cyber Security which will benefit business operations in the long run.

Have the right partners for the right protection

Mohit Sagar: By having the right partners assisting cyber security, a business can enable continuity

To kickstart the session, Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, OpenGov Asia delivered the opening address.

He acknowledged that there have been numerous events involving ransomware and other cyber-attacks over the last eighteen months. Businesses have been targeted from all directions and from every angle.

How much of a business’ legacy systems have been retained as people shift – or want to shift – to hybrid models. As every organisation, agency and institution makes digital transitions, doors are being opened that create vulnerabilities without even realising it.

The question we have to ask in all this, said Mohit, is what the root causes are and how do we overcome them. At some point, he opined, a business will become a target of an adverse cyber event. It is up to the business to prepare themselves, maintain awareness and ensure business continuity plans are in place.

Businesses must continuously ask how they plan to protect themselves for the long term. For that, he firmly believes, it is important to have the right partner to assist with cyber security – the most critical aspect of business continuity.

Furthermore, having competent partners who can focus on data protection, data recovery and compliance against a wide range of cyber threats enables businesses to concentrate on their primary tasks and key deliverables.

Cyber resiliency in a VUCA environment

Vijay Iyer: Digital transformation comes with the possibility of increased creating cyber risks

The next speaker, Vijay Iyer, Regional Vice President – Solutions Engineering, Claroty shared his perspective on the variety of cyber-attacks against the industry, the increasing frequency, and severity.

The most notable threat in recent times has been ransomware attacks. Although they have been around for years, they have resurfaced with renewed ferocity. In the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline attack, cybercriminals seized business data from the company’s networks and held it hostage until the company paid a $5 million ransom.

Although the pipeline was only shut down for a few days, it took several days to reopen. The effects of temporarily shutting down one of the largest pipelines in the United States, which supplies the East Coast with roughly 100 million gallons of fuel per day, rippled across the economy, causing gas prices to spike to a six-year high.

According to Vijay, there is an active threat landscape with a wide range and scope of where and how assaults occur. While most organisations are undergoing necessary digital transformation – undoubtedly beneficial to the business, country and citizens – it creates greater cyber risks.

Companies that run facilities with old and new systems should be classified as brownfield.  The concept commonly used in the industry describes problem areas that require the development and deployment of new software systems while legacy applications and systems are still functioning Brownfield Operational Technology poses a significant risk because these legacy components were not designed to be secure. This has been Claroty’s primary focus area to date, based on market demand.

Another reason for susceptibilities comes from evolving critical infrastructure. In most organisations, there are several infrastructures areas where companies need to deploy newer generations of components. Industrial IoT systems are being infused into older OT environments and, in some cases, replacing or complementing the existing infrastructure.

Businesses need to address the cybersecurity need for critical infrastructure. Industrial and commercial OT and industrial IoT are getting inseparable as they have combined security needs. This leads to an increased threat surface from cyber-attacks on both sides of the supply chain stated Vijay.

As a result of the pandemic, most organisations have shifted to hybrid or hybrid access which has resulted in significant exposure to critical infrastructure. In addressing this, clients face issues such as complex firewall configurations, slow emergency response time, too many perforations, purdue violations etc.

There are four pillars on how companies should build visibility, continuity and resiliency in industrial operations – Reveal, Protect, Detect and Connect.

Visibility, which is the most essential part for the company, includes asset visibility, network visibility and process visibility. According to Vijay, companies must understand not only the details of their assets but also how they are placed in the environment. When businesses have this granular understanding, they will be in a much better position to detect deviations and anomalies from that novel operating condition.

In the end, organisations must bring their findings and correct issues by filling the gaps and connecting them to the existing technology stack that the company has invested in. This will extend their business ROI and other technology applications that have been invested in the IT and OT areas.

Bowtie: robust cybersecurity strategy for the new normal

Mathieu Lahierre: Businesses must be aware of the types of cyber risks as well as the consequences 

Digitalisation and IoT have upended the most basic assumptions about operational security, said the next speaker, Mathieu Lahierre, Principal, Application & Data Security – Cybersecurity, Technology Risk & Compliance, BHP.

Today’s industrial facilities, including mine sites, mineral processing plants and remote operation centres, are unquestionably the most vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Their operational systems can be compromised by internal and external bad actors, resulting in safety and production failures.

Today, an approach that brings together IT and engineering is required to address cyber security programmatically while also being sustainable. Businesses must be aware of the types of cyber risks they face in the primary sector, as well as the consequences of those risks. The main reason, he feels, it is difficult to secure Industrial Control Systems (ICS) is that it was not designed to be connected in the way that networks are today.

Mathieu introduced the cyber risk bowtie analysis that offers a powerful tool to effectively visualise complex IT risks. The bowtie diagram also provides a useful structure for implementing control measures and preventing incidents. The importance of an IT process for business becomes clear through this clear risk visualisation, which is easy to understand not only by IT personnel but also by all people within the organisation.

In short, using bowtie models for cybersecurity allows leaders to show employees why the IT department insists on controls that have been accused of being tedious and obstructive. They understand that greater compliance is an immediate benefit and avoiding cyber events will help the company retain control of its intellectual property, assets, market share, revenue and reputation.

Mathieu concluded that it is critical to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of every department involved, from the manager to third parties, with a single line of accountability. In his opinion, the mining industry, where traditional boundaries between corporate IT and ICS did not exist, is now autonomous, with the digitalisation of mining sectors in operation.

He stressed that businesses could begin by assisting the maturity of cyber security controls and going beyond traditional operational safety considerations by implementing a secure vision and resilience programme. BHP’s vision is to achieve operational experience by taking advantage of productivity benefits offered by the digitalised and fully integrated ICS setup within its version.

Interactive Discussion

After the informative presentations, delegates participated in interactive discussions facilitated by polling questions. This activity is designed to provide live-audience interaction, promote engagement, hear real-life experiences, and impart professional learning and development for participants.

The first poll asked about the concerns delegates have when considering the current cyber security landscape.  Over half the delegates (54%) went with the Increasing incidence of ransomware, supply chain attacks and vulnerabilities. About a third (29%) said their concern was that legacy systems and lack asset visibility, lack of awareness of what to protect and how. A tenth indicated adversaries targeting OT systems to inflict cyber-physical attacks and 7% opted for increasing remote work arrangements due to COVID-19.

Delegated were asked what they rely on to check and guide the cyber security posture of their organisation. About two-thirds (67%) went with industry compliance-based controls e.g., ISO, NIST, IEC62443. About 15% said that regulatory codes of practice or guidelines passed by a regulatory authority was their go-to while 11% opted for threat-based Risk modelling e.g., Mitre ATT&CK, Lockheed Martin Kill Chain. About 7% chose supply-chain risk management e.g., accreditation schemes to rely on.

Asked about their top key value driver would be to address or fix cybersecurity gaps within their organisation, over half (54%) chose understanding risk with actionable response and remediation. About a third (32%) opted for detecting Threats and Vulnerabilities. The remaining delegates were equally divided (7% each) between securing how Remote Access is done and achieving complete visibility and segmented environments.

Surveyed on what the key adoption challenge within their organisation would be, about one third (36%) answered legacy systems and proprietary protocols in OT. Just over a quarter (27%) felt bridging the IT-OT divide, extending SOC technology and resources to embrace OT would be an issue. Another 27% felt that priorities in OT systems, safety and availability and hesitancy to adopt IT solutions (Cloud, MFA, key management) were considerations. A tenth went with integrating new technology in brownfield infrastructure.

The fifth question asked how they would describe the current state of their cyber security technology stack. Well over a third (39%) say that they have gaps in cyber security trained people and cybersecurity-related processes and professional services. Over a quarter (26%) are looking to better understand what they need and why they need some of the technologies they do not have. Another 26% said while they have a technology stack addressing IT parts of the enterprise, they have specialised technology for OT needs. Just under a tenth (9%) confirmed that they have all the technologies they need to achieve cyber security resiliency and desired posture.

Delegates were finally asked how they would best describe their current state of cyber security operations. To this 54% answered they have a Security Operations Centre that is already catering to IT but need to extend controls to OT. A fifth (21%) stated that they do not plan to have a Security Operations Centre and cyber team and another 21% said they do not have a Security Operations Centre yet but have gone through an assessment and have a defined program. About 4% are in the process of building a Security Operations Centre.

Conclusion

Companies are now developing holistic business continuity plans that can keep your business up and running, protect data, safeguard the brand, retain customers – and ultimately help reduce total operating costs over the long term. Having a business continuity plan in place can minimise downtime and achieve sustainable improvements in business continuity, IT disaster recovery, corporate crisis management capabilities, and regulatory compliance.

In closing, Vijay thanked the delegates for the interesting and insightful session. He gained and learned a lot in terms of how the delegates presented their perspectives on cybersecurity. He invited delegates to reach out to his team and him to explore ways they could assist their organisations on their cyber resilience journey.

Taiwan Commits to Enhance Cybersecurity Industry

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The President of Taiwan said that no stone is being left unturned in strengthening Taiwan’s cybersecurity industry in line with the goals and objectives of the government’s five-plus-two innovative industries plan. Cybersecurity is one of the most important of the six core strategic industries founded on the plan. This is evidenced by strong legislative support in the form of amendments to the National Security Act in 2019 and the passage of the Cybersecurity Management Act in 2018.

The number of cyberattacks is on the rise in Taiwan as malevolent actors seek to take advantage of an open internet and liberal social media environment. Left unchecked, the attempted theft of business-related data and intellectual property poses a threat to Taiwan’s freedom and democracy.

The government is responding to this challenge by integrating the development of cybersecurity, information and communication technology, the internet and telecommunications. In addition, a data-driven active defence system aimed at bolstering the resilience and security of Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is in the pipeline.

Taiwan is promoting a partnership between Taiwan’s public and private sectors, as well as like-minded partners in the international community. By sharing information, it is possible to efficiently and swiftly strengthen the country’s digital defences.

According to a page, to actively promote national cyber security policy, accelerate the establishment of the national cyber security environment, and enhance national competitiveness. After National Information and Communication Security Taskforce (NICST) was established, the “National Center for Cyber Security Technology, NCCST” was set up. The organisation aims to support NICST to establish the cyber security protection mechanism and provide technical services to government agencies, including prior-incident security protection, during-incident early warning and responses, and post-incident recoveries and forensics.

Since the establishment of NICST, our country has proactively led the government agencies to strengthen cyber security protection, which has achieved preliminary results in these years. However, cyber security requires long-term dedication. The goal is to enhance the overall cyber security defence capabilities and achieve the vision of “A Safety and Resilient Smart Nation” through four strategies listed below:

  • Attract high-level talents all over the world; cultivate independent power of research and innovation.
  • Promote public-private-partnership governance; enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure.
  • Utilise smart and forward-looking technologies; Proactively defend potential threats.
  • Complete an intelligent and secure society; boost non-governmental protection capabilities.

In response to Taiwan’s unique political and economic situation and global cyber security threats, it is urgent and necessary to continuously promote and implement cyber security tasks to respond to external challenges. Therefore, Taiwan formally established the Department of Cyber (DCS) to promote an overall national cyber security protection mechanism from the Yuan level; and led the national cyber security missions comprehensively with a team of dedicated professionals and special task forces.

As reported by OpenGov Asia, cybersecurity holds a significant impact on national security, public interest, national life, or economic activities. Enhancing the national security protection capacity, strengthening the security, and fostering resilience of basic communication networks are necessary.

Regarding the economy, various industries should incorporate cybersecurity protection thinking to form the basis of the united defence of government agencies and private enterprises. Hence, the awareness of cybersecurity will be deeply rooted in the mindset. To gradually enhance Taiwan’s cybersecurity protection capabilities, NICST proposed the National Cyber Security Programme of Taiwan (NCSP) as the reference guide for promoting cybersecurity protection strategy and plan.

Taiwan’s national cybersecurity policy has undergone systematic development and gradually achieved the scheduled milestones to effectively reinforce the readiness of national cybersecurity. The objectives include the establishment of a safe environment of cybersecurity, the completion of cybersecurity protection management, sharing of multiple cybersecurity information, the expansion of the cultivation of cybersecurity talent, and the reinforcement of international cybersecurity exchanges.

EXCLUSIVE: OpenGov Breakfast Insight: How Data Is Driving Intelligence Everywhere

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The development, integration and adoption of information management and governance frameworks are a necessity, especially in an era where the quality of data collected is more important than ever. As information is a strategic asset, governments need to protect, leverage and analyse both structured and unstructured information to better serve and meet mission requirements.

Public sector leaders need to lay the groundwork to correlate dependencies across events, people, processes and information to establish data-driven organisations to accomplish their mission. This is why creating effective information and data governance strategies, policies and frameworks to drive the quality, accuracy and availability of insights are essential.

With recent advancements in data analytics, business intelligence, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, governments can better predict and anticipate problems more accurately rather than react to them.

While this is not new, the difference today is the regularity, accuracy and consistency delivered made available with the current power of analytics. Massive data sets, millions of pages of unstructured text and information stored across silos and borders can now be analysed to identify patterns, forecast trends and mitigate problems.

Data analytics allows governments to see the bigger picture – understand where to increase efficiencies, cut waste, improve policies and monitor budgets.

Public sector agencies are working to radically improve their operations and services – driving the need to structure, collect and store data that will improve analysis and offer better actionable insights. Therefore, there has never been a more important time for data collaboration and a single source of truth.

The Singapore public sector has been leading the charge in digital transformation and data analytics in the region. The nation has developed new infrastructure to digitally industrialise the management, governance and use of data to support and scale data transformation initiatives.

In the world of data democratisation, breaking down information silos is the first step toward user empowerment. This can only be done with reliable analytics tools capable of desegregating and connecting previously siloed data, making it manageable from a single place. Governments need to be more intuitive to sense and respond to new technology opportunities that could drive digital transformation in times of constant change.

HyperIntelligence – a relatively recent concept – is about making data available to the staff to ensure convenience, access and safety. Considered the future of Data Analytics, it relies on trusted sources and personalising information for specific roles within the company. The future of Data Analytics is to provide critical data insights for specific keywords on all web applications.

To effectively leverage data insights to deliver citizen-centric services, data and analytics are crucial for government agencies. While it cannot be used to solve every challenge in society today, it is a great step in the right direction.

This was the focal point of the OpenGov Breakfast Insight on 10 September 2021 – a closed-door, invitation-only, interactive session with Singapore’s top government agencies. This session aimed to provide the latest information on how government agencies can use data analytics to drive mission outcomes.

Finding Partners to Leverage Data Analytics

Mohit Sagar: Having the right partners allows agencies to accelerate transformation.

To kickstart the session, Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief at OpenGov Asia delivered the opening address.

Data on a global scale has taken on an entirely different dimension and Singapore is no different. In fact, compared to other countries in the region, the nation is well ahead of the curve and leads in data analytics. The public sector has spent huge amount of money on technological innovations.

While Singapore collects massive amounts of data, quantity alone is not enough to make informed decisions. Where, how and when is critical as is how the data is structured and made uniform. For better and more relevant data, information silos need to be broken down. Democratisation, integration and sharing will all be key to bettering citizen services and enhancing citizen experience.

To democratise data, the public sector needs to empower its entire workforce – from top to bottom. For the most part, data is often only accessible to people in higher positions or specific departments, creating disparity and lacunae. The information gap must be bridged with appropriate empowerment – be it through awareness, training or skill up-gradation.

Access to large data sets is essential for a government’s digital transformation journey. Of course, data in and of itself is not the end goal – data must serve as a tool to derive understanding that enables effective decision making. Actionable insights from analytics will ultimately enrich the citizen experience.

In closing, Mohit emphasised the importance of partnerships that could help leverage data analytics for an organisation. By working with the right people, a company can accelerate its digital journey towards effective digital transformation.

Global State of Enterprise Analytics​

Kyung-Whu Chung: Organisations must enrich data to gain insights

Kyung-Whu Chung, Director, Sales Engineering, APAC, MicroStrategy spoke next of the criticality of quality of data in digital transformation. To set the context, Kyung Whu revealed that a recent survey showed that 94% of respondents say that Data and Analytics are important to their business growth and digital transformation. While this may be obvious, it bears more elaboration and explanation.

There are huge benefits for organisations to use data analytics, including improved efficiency and productivity. Better data analytics leads to faster and more effective decision-making and, ultimately, results in better financial performance. Data analytics also assist organisations to identify and create new promising products and services.

While benefits are clear internally, there are advantages for the consumer as well. Customer satisfaction and experience are both critical for a company to thrive was the key. Data analytics help better understand consumer behaviour, trends, demands and also identify issues. It has improved customer acquisition and retention with enhanced customer experience.

Contrarily, the same survey showed that only 21% of potential business users are using data. The vast majority (97%) of real-time decisions are data deprived. This indicates, surprisingly, that organisations and agencies are still relying on their intuition and manual analysis to solve complex problems with multiple variables.

Barriers that limit the uptake of analytics have been well articulated. Kyung-Whu identified the top three concerns  – data and privacy concerns, limited access to analytics and lack of talent and training.

On the issue of privacy, 38% of organisations said more than 50% of their data is certified by an organisation authority or adheres to corporate policies. Despite this, customers are concerned about their sensitive and personal data. Organisations need to build trust and communicate properly on the use of data responsibly. This will encourage customers to be more inclined to provide their information.

When it comes to access, data-driven culture often gets stuck at the top. Access to the organisation’s data and analytics is usually concentrated on specific roles. Democratising data is important as it empowers all departments and encourages data-driven decisions at all levels throughout the company.

The last challenge that organisations need to tackle is the lack of talent and training. While simple enough to understand, there needs to be a more intentional drive and strategy to reskill and upskill employees.

In closing, Kyung-Whu encouraged delegates to expanded their thinking and embrace a multi-tool environment​. A data-driven culture can only be built on data democratisation, enabling everyone to access every process and every app. Collecting data is only a start, organisations need to enrich the data to gain deeper insights.

Health AI Strategy

Sutowo Wong: Rapid need for digital health presents opportunities to redefine care in Singapore

Delegates then heard from Sutowo Wong, Director, Analytics and Information Management Division, Ministry of Health, Singapore who elaborated on the AI strategy and use cases in the nation’s health division.

Sutowo acknowledged as the nation shaped its health AI strategy, it needed to be mindful of the external macro trends. One such trend is the democratisation of data and analytics. Self-service analytics and the rising demand for data visualisation requires a better user experience for both data and insights​.

The next trend was the rise of analytics apps. Role-based actionable insights needed to be more easily consumed and deployed. Moreover, the ability to support decision making is still the most significant challenge to realising value from investments in analytics​.

Singapore’s health AI strategy is aligned with the national AI strategy  – a vision that is committed to making Singapore a leader in developing and deploying scalable, impactful ​AI solutions in key sectors of high value and relevance to citizens and businesses states by 2030.

Specifically, the vision in the health field is to transform and enhance policy decision making, delivery of care and patient outcomes as well as internal operations through the development and deployment of scalable AI solutions in the healthcare sector​.

To achieve the vision, the government has developed a strategy and framework for health​, identified and driven impactful and feasible AI use cases that could be scaled across the healthcare system, and leveraged ecosystem enablers for AI in the health sector.

Sutowo shared the example of the self-learning retinal screening tech as a successful use case of deploying AI in healthcare. Singapore Eye LEsionN Analyser (SELENA+) is a deep learning system jointly developed by the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) that can cut the time needed to screen for Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). ​SELENA+’s capabilities in analysing retinal images could be extended to a predictive risk assessment model for cardiovascular diseases.

Another use case is AI in the health grand challenge, JARVIS. The initiative aims to help primary care teams stop or slow disease progression and complication development in Diabetes, Hypertension and hyperLipidemia (DHL) patients by 20% in 5 years​.

Singapore is upskilling talent based on the whole government analytics competency framework. In the end, Sutowo believes, that beyond AI, the rapid growth in digital health presented opportunities to redefine Singapore care and financing models.

Interactive Discussion

After the informative presentations, delegates participated in interactive discussions facilitated by polling questions. This session is designed to provide live-audience interaction, promote engagement, hear real-life experiences and impart professional learning and development for the participants. It is an opportunity for delegates to gain insight from subject matter experts, share their stories and take back strategies that can be implemented in their organisations.

The opening poll inquired about the main challenge delegates face in their data strategy journey. Almost half (47%) chose a lack of data culture/literacy/skill across employees as their primary challenge. A little less than one-third (32%) thought that missing an overall strategy that crosses departments and teams is their biggest obstacle. Data privacy and security concerns are the biggest challenges for 16% of delegates while 5 % chose a lack of a centralised tool for sharing and collaboration.

The second question inquired about the best option to overcome the people challenge. Again, almost half (44%) believed that their best choice is to increase data literacy by providing education and certification programs. A quarter chose the leadership team to mandate all employees to use the analytic tool as their best option while 19% opted to improve the current process for business users to get instant data. About a tenth (12%) indicated that providing employees with a self-service analytic tool would be their best option.

On being asked about what their business users do when they have new data requirements, almost two-thirds (65%) approached the IT department directly for support. While almost a quarter (23%) went by their gut feeling, 12% opted to raise a Helpdesk ticket.

The next question was about their agency’s biggest data management barrier. Delegates were equally divided (26%) between data collection and data accessibility and sharing. A little more than one-fifth (21%) identified data accuracy – providing a single source of truth – as their main barrier. While 16% chose real-time insights, about 11% went with regulatory compliance.

Delegates were asked what their agency is doing to manage their data management challenges. Almost half (48%) chose a combination between working with current service providers for better efficiencies, and sourcing for service providers to bridge the gap. A third chose to work with current service providers to improve efficiencies and maintain costs. Almost a fifth (19% ) chose to source for service providers to bridge the gap, alongside existing vendors.

On being queried about how many systems their agency store its data, almost three quarters (71%) employed over 10 systems. One-fifth (20%) used 2-4 systems while 10 % had between 5-9 systems.

The next poll asked which applications delegates spend most of their working days. A majority (70%) spent their time with email while a quarter often used productivity applications (like Microsoft Office).

Asked about whether delegates have considered zero-click experience for data, almost two-thirds (68%) have not considered it while a third (32%) have.

The final issue asked delegates’ top data strategy priority in the next 2 years. Well over half (60%) prioritised data sharing to generate insights across agencies boundaries to equip decision-makers with information needed to execute operations better and plan for future contingencies. The remaining delegates were equally split (20%) between prioritising to empower staff with meaningful data insights to drive decisions and to accelerate legacy modernisation to improve resilience and agility.

Conclusion

The Breakfast Insight concluded with remarks from Kyung-Whu Chung who highlighted the role of data analytics and the need for agencies to begin leveraging it. He urged agencies to become data-driven and advised them to accelerate their digital transformation.

In closing, he invited the delegates to reach out to his team to explore ways they could work together to assist them on their journey.

EXCLUSIVE! OpenGovLive! Virtual Insight: The Evolution Of DevOps – Is Platform Ops The Future?

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To create efficiency, flexibility, speed and feedback loops required for optimal workflows and innovation, the IT teams have been looking to leverage collaborative technologies and solutions.

While conventional software companies have long relied on traditional DevOps, many organisations are now exploring new practices and innovative ways to be better accommodate a distributed workforce in the new normal.

Such models pose numerous challenges for the IT team in an organisation, not least of which is a lack of clear and specific guidelines for assessing organisational progress. Monitoring, evaluating and learning apart, the collective challenges that organisations across the board face are:

  • Scale: rushed scaling can lead to security, privacy and compliance issues
  • Security: assuming that responsibility for security and compliance falls on the provider can be a trap
  • Integration: complete and optimal system integration is a gargantuan task
  • Collaboration: The need for synergistic interaction and a non-siloed approach is a given, but not easily achieved.

The fact of the matter is, organisations need a dedicated team to deliver and operate a platform that can be used by multiple application product teams to scale DevOps practices efficiently. But in aiming for rapid digital transformation there are pitfalls.

One of the downsides of scaling fast is that it can lead to failing fast. The middle ground and the key solution is Platform Ops. It offers value to application teams and applies DevOps practices in implementation and can streamline processes involved in scaling DevOps practice. Crucially, it allows developers to focus on development and firms to focus on their customers – rather than spend time unnecessarily on processes.

This was the focal point of the OpenGovLive! Virtual Insight held on 9 September 2021. This session helped delegates understand the ways to fully grasp the true meaning of “agile infrastructure” or “agile operations” using DevOps and Platform Ops. It also provided information on how organisations can fully utilise DevOps and Platform Ops to meet customer demand quickly and seamlessly.

Finding Partners for Using Platform Ops

Mohit Sagar: Right partners allow companies to accelerate digital transformation

To kickstart the session, Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, OpenGov Asia delivered the opening address.

Mohit likened the modern digital landscape to a maze that has a start and an endpoint. However, in every corner, organisations find different technologies – some old, some new and some evolved – thanks to the ever-changing requirements of people, processes and the context. To accommodate these shifts, organisations need to constantly look for better solutions in terms of DevOps and Platform Ops.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation on an unprecedented scale. While the pandemic posed huge challenges, at the same time, it has transformed society digitally at a global level.

This silver lining brings great rethink, re-imagine and re-invent. The lens through which organisations focusing on problems will determine the solutions they ultimately opt for. Mohit exhorted delegates to explore more current solutions by being agile, maintaining security and creating scalability.

In closing, Mohit emphasised the importance of finding the right partners to create the best citizen experience. Having competent experts who can focus on Dev/Ops, allows organisations to focus on their main tasks and key deliverables.

Technology Insight

The forum next heard from Lilian Tydings, Head of Product Design & User Experience NGINX Product Group at F5 on the dynamics of DevOps and Platform Ops. Their experience shows that most companies or organisations are still in the process of understanding Platform Ops as it is fairly new.

Lilian defines Platform Ops as a way to assess how balanced the dynamics are between the development and operation teams. While the development team focuses on speed and efficiency, the operation team needs to ensure scalability and quality.

Hence, the key is to understand how the two worlds look like, anticipate the possible conflicts and find a way to balance all of those aspects. Technological answers and Platform Ops can be the solutions for the potential conflicts between the development and operation teams.

F5 is trying to understand what real-life scenarios look like so they can provide the relevant solutions. The company is open to interacting with a wide range of organisations to explore how they could work together.

International Case Study

Dr Leong Mun Kew: Organisations must create a platform for scalability

Dr Leong Mun Kew, Director of Graduate Programmes, Chief Artificial Intelligence Practice, Chief Data Science Practice, Institute of Systems Science, at the National University of Singapore was the next speaker who explored the significance of DevOps for businesses.

Dr Mun Kew acknowledged that there was tension between people who were building things and people who were running things. From his experience, the Operation people are comfortable doing what they know best. Meanwhile, the development people have a traditional mindset to get things down in the same manner.

Nonetheless, as the world is changing, including the rapid shifts forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations need to try new ways to find solutions. When trying to adopt new solutions, the process can create added tension between the development and operation teams.

Whenever organisations want to develop new products, they also have to think about operations which are primarily about reliability, scalability, and security.

In the end, Dr Mun Kew emphasised that the tension between the development and the operation team is usually because of a mismatch of expectation and internal pressure. Hence, organisations must create a platform for scalability to deliver material in a faster and more agile way.

Interactive Discussion

After the informative presentations, delegates participated in interactive discussions facilitated by polling questions. This session is designed to provide live-audience interaction, promote engagement, hear real-life experiences and impart professional learning and development for the participants. It is an opportunity for delegates to gain insight from subject matter experts, share their stories and take back strategies that can be implemented in their organisations.

Delegates were first asked what technology problems they are most concerned with. Almost half (47%) were concerned about security while a little more than a quarter (27%) prioritised availability. While 13% were concerned about reliability, the remainder were equally divided (7%) between complexity and scalability.

In the accompanying discussion, a delegate who chose security said he do so as it encompasses availability, integrity and confidentiality. A representative from the IT division felt availability was the most important as the technology should be available all the time without interruption.

From his vantage as a consultant to many companies, Dr Mun Kew felt that security would be companies’ biggest concern as tech experts are comfortable with their tasks but they are afraid of what-if scenarios. While preparing for the worst-case scenario is needed, Dr Mun Kew encouraged everyone to focus on doing their day-to-day operations more efficiently.

The second inquired about the unmet needs of delegates’ organisations. Similar to the previous question, almost half (47%) said that their organisations lacked agility (adapting to changes, balance day-to-day with strategic / long-view)​. Close to a third (29%) chose innovation (onboarding new tech, team’s complacency)​ as something that their organisation’s shortcoming. Delegates were equally split (12%) between business continuity (secure work environment, sourcing and retaining talent)​ and infrastructure (delivery better at scale, budget constraints)​.

Robert Whiteley: F5 is here to listen and understand delegates

On being queried about the primary issues between Dev and Ops today, one-third (33%) chose collaboration. A little more than one-fourth chose agility as their main issue while a one-fifth (22%) thought their organisations need a platform approach. While 11% and chose automation, the balance 6% felt they need more information about Kubernetes or Container/Microservices​.

The final issue delegates were polled on was balancing speed and efficiency with scalability and quality. More than half (56%) said improving collaboration would bring the balance. Delegates were equally divided (17%) between developing new standards and processes​ and establishing a platform team​. 6% said that they are not balancing speed and efficiency with scalability and quality and another 6% said that they have established a platform team​.

Conclusion

The Virtual Insight concluded with remarks from Robert Whiteley, General Manager NGINX Product Group at F5. He was eager to clarify that he was not there to be biased about the technology that his company offers but to listen and understand delegates’ perspectives.

Robert was delighted with the interactive discussion with the delegates. He felt it would help his team and he better understand the dynamics in delegates’ organisations as well as identify key areas that F5 can help.

The delegates’ perspective on the importance of collaboration, communication, balance and security, he believed, would be significantly beneficial for F5 in the way they would work with companies going ahead.

Robert invited the delegates to reach out to his team to explore ways they could work together to assist them on their journey.

EXCLUSIVE! OpenGovLive! Virtual Breakfast Insight: Smart Cloud for A High Performance And Future-Ready Government

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Government agencies around the world have been working hard to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to meet increasingly higher citizen demands. As the new normal accelerates digital transformation, the public sector needs to ensure its smooth and uninterrupted digital services for the citizens.

While people, process and technology are integral aspects of digital transformation, technologies form a foundation for a successful project. That being said, for tech to be useful, modernising the on-premises IT environment and applications that span data centres, edge locations and public clouds is essential.

Governments acknowledge that technologies bring value to enable a connected and innovative ecosystem, especially in a fast-changing digital-enabled environment. While in 2020, business continuity was the priority, 2021 marks a turning point with innovation becoming the focus for future-ready organisations looking to accelerate their growth.

To ensure the success of Asia’s rapidly digitalising business environment, organisations need a holistic approach to deliver superior digital experiences across any cloud, any application and any device, seamlessly and securely.

Thailand is progressing in its digital transformation efforts to achieve a resilient,  inclusive and innovation-led economy. The country will be in a better position to deliver enhanced digital experiences to digital-first Thai citizens by harnessing next-generation technologies such as cloud computing. Nonetheless, as efforts continue to accelerate digital transformation, the public sector must strengthen the mission-critical digital infrastructures.

The initiative to use a centralised data-sharing government platform by 2023 through the Government Data Center and Cloud (GDCC) service as part of efforts to boost public services within a single window for data access is a move in the right direction.

In all this, the government must build trust for digital services and platforms among citizens to bridge the divide within the nation.

Aligning resources, particularly budgets, with innovation is another prominent challenge facing the government. How can agencies modernise, re-platform, re-host and refactor applications to transition from monolithic systems to agile, streamlined microservices?  The answers involve modest, scalable steps:

Start small and focus. The modernisation of critical applications can be gradual. The optimal strategy to migrate applications from old systems to cloud environments is by streamlining the current portfolio of applications.

Scale fast through automation and iteration. Replacing manual processes with automation will also significantly improve downtime and ensure continuous delivery of services.

The ongoing pandemic results in the rapid adoption of cloud computing and SaaS apps in recent months. This has also enabled agencies to effectively operate with a distributed workforce and remote working. Agencies are eager to capitalise on the speed, scale and flexibility cloud-based infrastructure can provide to the anywhere workspace.

However, as cloud computing grows in popularity and transforms how governments collect, use and share data, it also becomes an attractive target for cybercriminals.

Addressing the challenges of a distributed workforce requires a modern, integrated approach. Future-ready workforce solutions will enable a seamless and more secure digital employee experience, driving greater outcomes in the new world of work. An intrinsic approach to organisational security will provide an additional layer of robust protection for mission-critical operations and infrastructures to fast-track innovation and resilience.

This was the focal point of the OpenGovLive! Virtual Breakfast Insight held on 8 September 2021. This session aimed at imparting knowledge and strategies on how to unlock a multi-cloud future to accelerate digital transformation and delivering secured citizen-centric services with agility, scalability, and speed.

Finding Partners for Smart and Secure Cloud Services

Mohit Sagar: By having the right partners on cloud services, agencies can concentrate on their main tasks

To kickstart the session, Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, OpenGov Asia delivered the opening address.

Mohit acknowledged that Thailand has been heavily encouraging digital transformation – and successfully, too. Last year, Thailand ranked first among 176 countries in terms of fixed broadband internet speeds. Within ASEAN, Thailand was the first country to launch commercial 5G services. This is a great indicator of the nation’s commitment and planning for tech adoption.

Nonetheless, as across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic tested Thailand’s agility to adapt to the new normal and the government was expected to deliver citizen services digitally. Further, citizens’ expectations and demands have changed having been exposed to the efficiency and ease of transactions with the private sector.

The Government Data Center and Cloud service (GDCC) aims to be a foundational digital service that drives digital transformation in Thailand​. Mohit encouraged the public sector to embrace the cloud technologies to serve the citizen better.

The importance of cloud is evident to all but governments globally have had to rethink their cloud strategy. As they rapidly migrate services to the cloud to enable better and wider access for all,  creating a sound cloud strategy becomes paramount. Despite the 24/7 personalised digital services it can offer, security is critical. Irrespective, the government cannot let security issues cripple their decision to leverage cloud services.

As the Thai government explores cloud platforms and solutions, Mohit encourages scalability and agility. Agility is not only a matter of speed and flexibility but constantly rolling out small iterations.

In closing, Mohit emphasised the importance of finding the right partners to create the best citizen experience. Having competent experts who can focus on delivering smart and secure cloud services, allows governments to focus on their main tasks and key deliverables.

Thailand Government Data Cloud

Vunnaporn Devahastin: Multi-cloud management is a key component of the cloud marketplace

The forum next heard from Mrs Vunnaporn Devahastin, Secretary-General, Office of the National Digital Economy & Society Commission at the Ministry of the Digital Economy & Society, who spoke on the landscape of data cloud in the Thai government.

Mrs Vunnaporn started by elaborating on objectives and goals in implementing a central government cloud project. The government wanted to provide a central system to offers standard and secure cloud services. The infrastructure was designed to support quick and thorough access to computer resources that would allow for the transformation into a digital government.

In addition, supporting analytics and big data is vital to the success of government cloud projects. This, in turn,  drives the need to develop government personnel who can oversee and drive the transformation​.

Per the Thailand National Data Strategy Roadmap, the short-term strategy is to focus on design and foundations. The government will establish a strategy and then pursue quick action on priorities, including data classification and integration as well as data protection and privacy. The next step is to set up enabling governance framework and eventually assess gaps across enablers and capabilities.

By 2022, Thailand will focus on the implementation of the strategy in priority themes, including public services, poverty alleviation, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and industry. To implement the strategy, the government is looking to improve data governance and stewardship and then foster a centre of management and operation. Simultaneously, it will focus on people, training, culture, continuous partnerships, technology and environment.

In closing, Mrs Vunnaporn highlighted that GDCC and Public Cloud are part of cloud ecosystem and multi-cloud management is the key component of cloud marketplace.

VMware Enabling the Foundation for ​Digital Government

Ekpawin Sukanan: Business challenges can be solved by being agile, providing convenience and creating trust

Ekpawin Sukanan, Country Manager at VMware Thailand spoke next presenter on the criticality of cloud technology in building digital government.

As is globally evident, government IT departments are facing unprecedented challenges. The four main challenges, according to Ekpawin, are the escalating pressure for modernisation, the urgent need for mobile workplaces and services, new expectations from citizens and the community and intensifying cyber threats.

Research shows that 70% of government IT Leaders believed their digital transformation plans would accelerate due to the pandemic​. However, legacy systems impede agility and mission outcomes. As a result, governments have significantly increased the adoption of next-generation of clouds over the next three years.

According to a VMware study, ASEAN led in delivering superior digital experiences during the pandemic by providing seamless digital services, accelerating innovation and encouraging competitiveness. Thai citizens have high levels of digital inquisitiveness as they classify themselves as “digitally curious” or “digital explorers” – and they are ready for more digital experiences.

The nation has made digital literacy a priority and, in return, Thai citizens acknowledge that the government played a critical role in raising digital literacy levels. With citizens embracing superior digital experiences, digital literacy and technologies of the future, Ekpawin feels that citizen-government partnership may be a key differentiator for Thailand’s post-pandemic recovery.

Ekpawin firmly believes that agencies can solve their most pressing business challenges by being agile, providing convenience and creating trust. He suggests five ways to achieve digital government:

  • Modernise government infrastructure and apps
  • Expand digital capabilities and create new value
  • Drive exceptional citizen-centred experiences
  • Empower and scale a remote government workforce
  • Protect government data and build citizen trust

Ekpawin highlighted how VMware technologies have helped the public sector in providing agile, secured and beneficial citizen-centric services. VMware provides a cloud-agnostic platform for digital transformation and offers a single, flexible platform for infrastructure, applications, compute, networking, mobility and security.

Interactive Discussion

After the informative presentations, delegates participated in interactive discussions facilitated by polling questions. This session is designed to provide live-audience interaction, promote engagement, hear real-life experiences and impart professional learning and development for the participants. It is an opportunity for delegates to gain insight from subject matter experts, share their stories and take back strategies that can be implemented in their organisations.

The first poll asked about the current state of delegates’ organisation’s public cloud adoption. Close to half (46%) of the respondents agreed that they have some small workloads in the cloud. Meanwhile, the remaining delegates were equally split (18%) between cloud adoption still under evaluation, having production workloads less than fifty per cent in the cloud and having the majority of workloads in the cloud.

Delegates were asked what their organisation’s top priority for their Application Portfolio would be over the next 6 months. Half of them prioritised rehosting/migrating existing apps to cloud​. One-fifth are looking to retain existing apps and 15% chose​ refactoring/developing new cloud apps​ as their main priority. A tenth prioritised re-platforming existing apps and leveraging Containers/Kubernetes and the remaining 5% are focussing on retiring old apps/leverage SaaS apps​.

Asked about participants’ top challenge for adopting Kubernetes or Container/Microservices in their organisations, almost half (47%) see the lack of developer/operator skills as their biggest challenge. A little more than one-fifth (21%) said that they needed more information about Kubernetes or Container/Microservices​. About 16% saw security concern as their main obstacle,10% chose ease of managing Kubernetes​ and 5% went with technology complexity as their biggest challenge.

The next question inquired about delegates’ organisation’s top security challenge in terms of technical factors. Almost half (45%) saw increasing sophistication and volume of threats​ as their primary security challenge. A little more than one-third opted for integrating different products from different vendors in the stack as an issue​. Only 15% thought rapid application changes​ to be concerning and 5% said increased use of cloud is their top security challenge.

Surveyed on which aspect is a key focus area in your organisation’s security strategy over the next 6 months, a little less than one-third (31%) focused on network security. Delegates were equally divided (18.75%) between endpoint, workload, and cloud security. Only 6% chose workspace security.

On the issue of the biggest challenge delegates’ organisation is facing about WAN networks, delegates were equally split (30%) between security concerns on each branch and the high price of WAN link as their primary challenge. About 15% of delegates thought that WAN network is hard to manage. Delegates were also evenly divided (5%) between lack of visibility and complexity of the technology as their biggest obstacle.

Regarding the top challenge in adopting delegates’ own data centre over the next 6 months, 40% said that security is their main challenge. Delegates were split (28%) between monitoring and migrating to private cloud as their top obstacle. The remaining 4% chose server load balancer improvement as their biggest challenge​.

Delegates were finally asked the biggest challenge their organisation is facing while working from home. A little more than half (52%) said that their biggest challenge is that the IT Operation cannot manage multiple device types while 43% chose security concerns. The remaining 5% felt it was slow traffic on shared servers​.

Conclusion

It is obvious, Ekpawin feels, that cloud migration is taking place and the pandemic accelerated its adoption across the Thai public sector. Agencies need to gradually utilise all types of clouds, including government, public and private clouds to ensure the transition to a digital government is achieved smoothly and effectively.

Ekpawin thanked the delegates for the interesting and insightful session. He encouraged delegates to exchange ideas and invited delegates to reach out to his team to explore ways they could assist their agencies on their cloud journey.

Philippine Bill Introduced to Combat Cybercrimes in the Finance Sectors

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As banks embark on the journey of cloud and digital transformation, cybercriminals have taken advantage of the pandemic to target remote, distracted, and vulnerable workers through a new digital work-from-home operating model.

The head of the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) has warned that cybercrime is a major concern for lenders as the country’s banking industry rapidly digitises. According to the Philippines Central Bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), 98.4% of reports on crimes and losses filed by banks from March 15 to May 18, 2020, alone were online in nature and amounted to a total loss of P60.6 million. The Philippine National Police (PNP) Anti-Cybercrime Group, reported a 37% increase in online scams from March to September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

With this, a Philippine senator has introduced new legislation to combat new cybercrimes such as skimming and phishing, which have reached an all-time high since most transactions have shifted online during the pandemic. The “Bank Account, E-wallet, and Other Financial Accounts Regulation Act,” also known as Senate Bill No. 2380, aims to promote and maintain a stable and efficient financial system while also recognising the need to protect the public from cybercriminals and syndicates that target bank accounts and e-wallets.

Digital platforms made it possible to keep our economy going, but it has also become an opportunity for crime to thrive. That is why we must put up the proper safeguards that will not only avoid criminal activity but also unlock the potential of digital platforms as well.

–  Chairperson of the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions, and currencies

The measure aims to ensure that the hard-earned money of the public is kept safe and that public trust and confidence in the nation’s financial system are maintained as it continues to innovate and traverse through cyberspace, said the senator.

If the bill is passed, agencies such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Department of Justice, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Philippine National Police will develop an “Anti-Scam/Financial Fraud Roadmap” to educate and inform consumers about financial scams and how to avoid them, as well as to expedite the regulation and prosecution of financial cybercrime cases.

The bill also requires banks, non-bank financial institutions, and other relevant institutions to not only respond to cybercrime reports more quickly, but also to enhance their online platforms, payment systems, and data security.

OpenGov Asia earlier reported that a joint statement issued by the Philippines business firm says the impact of cybercrime in the country is expected to grow further. Globally, it is expected to reach $6 trillion in 2021 and up to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025 if businesses and governments do not take proactive measures on this issue soon.

About 42% of the firms surveyed in the Philippines reported that they were hit by ransomware in 2020, which is an increase from 30% in 2019. Of these, 76% suffered data encryption, which means the hackers locked their databases until their demands were fulfilled. The number is said to be higher than the global average of 54%.

A UK-based cybersecurity firm found that Philippine organisations have spent an average of $820,000 (approximately P40 million) to recover from these attacks – costs that cover the ransom paid, and the costs incurred by the downtime. The cost is lower than the global average of $1.85 million. The global average is $170,404, with $3.2 million being the highest recorded in the survey.

Cybercrime is a major concern for businesses of all sizes, from small start-ups to large multinational corporations. With so many high-profile breaches in the last decade, the threat is as visible as it is constant. Furthermore, the COVID-19 has aided in increasing reliance on digital channels, but it has also attracted bad actors as online scams have grown in popularity.

Australian Government Awards Cybersecurity Certification to Local Tech Company

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The Australian Government has awarded the world’s largest data centre & colocation infrastructure provider with Certified Strategic Hosting Provider status, the highest-level assurance required of data centre providers to host Australian Government data, based on requirements defined in the Hosting Certification Framework managed by the Digital Transformation Agency.

This new certification applies to several of the company’s International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres in key metros across Australia. The Managing Director of the tech company says the company has a proven track record as a long-term provider. The firm understands and welcomes the need for clear and transparent whole-of-government outsourcing arrangements in respect of data centre service providers, whilst ensuring Australia remains a competitive, global digital economy.

The company has many certified, densely connected, highly secure IBX facilities in key metros across Sydney, Canberra, Perth and Melbourne and has been a data centre provider to the Commonwealth and state governments for many years under previous hosting panels. They also work with most of the major managed service providers, cloud providers and network providers who provide services to the Australian Government.

Combined with Defence Industry Security Program (DISP), Australian Cyber Security Committee (ACSC) membership and various ISO and SOC certifications, this latest certification ensures that the company meets the highest standards to continue supporting its partners’ capabilities to serve the Australian public sector.

Digital transformation initiatives that leverage cloud technologies and enable remote working are on the rise in Australia, and so is the demand for cybersecurity solutions, according to a new report published by a leading global technology research and advisory firm. The report sees the cybersecurity industry in Australia growing significantly in the coming years.

As enterprises move more data to the cloud and enable remote working, they want to improve their cybersecurity services. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a greater strain on cybersecurity systems as many employees continue to work from home.

In addition, the use of artificial intelligence with cybersecurity tools will grow, the report says, driven by the adoption of the IoT, an increase in threats, concerns about data privacy and stringent new regulations. Next-generation identity and access management, messaging and network security will be key cybersecurity investment areas for Australian companies through 2022.

Demand for cloud-based detection and response solutions is also expected to increase in the coming years, the report predicts. Threat intelligence and strategic security services can also help organizations become more resilient.

Identity and access management platforms have also become one of the most important technology investments for Australian organizations due to the move toward cloud and hybrid IT, the report adds. As enterprises move their IT infrastructure to the cloud, many cybersecurity providers are also moving identity and access management tools from on-premises to the cloud.

Advanced data loss prevention tools have also become a mature and important market in Australia, since the adoption of the Australian Privacy Act of 2018. Stricter privacy regulations have prompted enterprises in the country to adopt the technology.

Finally, many enterprises in Australia are adopting advanced endpoint threat protection, detection and response solutions to protect employees who continue to work from home, the report says. Demand is also triggered by legacy technology still being used and by an explosion of internet-facing endpoints and services that create technical complexity, leading to configuration errors.

Citizens Urged to Adopt Anti-Fraud Precautions in the Philippines

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The Internet can be a dangerous place where cybercriminals can steal one’s money, passwords, and even identity. E-commerce fraud is one of the most serious concerns when it comes to online scams. Consumers are the victims of most e-commerce fraud incidents, ranging from credit card fraud to bogus returns. Because of the safety and convenience of these platforms, as many Filipinos continue to stay indoors or strive to live under the “new normal,” there has been an increase in the adoption of digital banking and financial services.

With the significant increase in digital fraud in the country, Filipino consumers need to be warier of the people they interact and transact with online, especially when money is involved. Not only should they protect their financial information, but they should also be wary of people asking for personal information such as their phone numbers, email addresses or ID numbers,” said the Country Director for the Philippines, of a cross-border digital payments company.

“Over the past year, we have seen accelerated growth in the use of digital methods of making payments as well as sending and receiving remittances. But the current trend that we are seeing infers that the increase would likely continue beyond the pandemic,” he added. They have seen consistent, double-digit growth month-on-month since it opened international transfers to domestic mobile wallets.

Nevertheless, as the amount of money circulating in the digital sphere grows, so does the number of fraud cases. As per a study released in March 2021 by global insights company, 44% of Filipino consumers were targeted by digital fraud attempts in the previous three months, while enterprises saw a 315 increase in fraud attempts compared with the previous year. As the majority of financial and shopping activity moves online, he urges Filipinos to be cautious not only of the people they encounter online but also of the platforms and websites with which they transact.

Credit card fraud, identity theft, chargebacks, and bogus returns are the most common types of e-commerce themes. These have an impact on both consumers and merchants. Late-night orders, dropbox addresses, items listed for sale outside of the country, express shipping, free/anonymous email services, high dollar orders, and cases where the “ship to” address differs from the billing address are all red flags of possible fraud.

Consumers can protect themselves from e-commerce fraud by doing the following:

  • Shopping at secure websites
  • Doing research on the website before they place the order
  • Reading the site’s policies on privacy and security
  • Being mindful of cookies
  • Never give out your social security number

Merchants can reduce fraud by:

  • Verifying a cardholder’s info
  • Using transaction controls
  • Maintaining an internal negative file
  • Implementing a transaction data field

OpenGov Asia reported that an international tech giant behemoth has unveiled details of its upcoming AI-powered chip designed to bring deep learning inference to enterprise workloads to help address fraud in real-time, to identify and stop a variety of fraud attacks and crime quickly and accurately – while improving customer and citizen experiences.

The new chip has an innovative centralised design that enables clients to use the full power of the AI processor for AI-specific workloads, making it ideal for financial services workloads such as fraud detection, loan processing, trade clearing and settlement, anti-money laundering, and risk analysis. The chip has 8 processor cores with a deep superscalar out-of-order instruction pipeline and a clock frequency of more than 5GHz, which is optimised for the demands of heterogeneous enterprise-class workloads.

“Consumers should think first before they click on a link, or before signing up for a financial service or an online shopping website. The more discerning users get, unfortunately, the more deceptive fraudulent activities get as well,” he added. He went on to say that Filipinos should avoid third-party intermediaries or those who offer to make transactions on their behalf, and instead only transact with trustworthy platforms that offer security measures to prevent fraud and other malicious activities.

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