Shedding Light On Dark Innovations

‘Dark Innovation' has often been used by terrorists, criminals and insurgents to break into cyber systems through imaginative means. Is enough being done in organisations to counter these threats? At the recent ‘Cyber Security & Dark Innovation' seminar held on 4 May 2018 at the SIM Headquarters, effective approaches for resisting these attacks were among the various topics discussed. The event was organised by the Singapore Computer Society, SIM GE, the University of Warwick and supported by The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore. Here are some key excerpts shared by panellists at the event.


The panellists engaged the audience in a vibrant discussion.

Cyber Security In The Age Of Digitisation And Automation
“In the age of the SMART Nation, more digitisation and automation will take place. To deal with this, we need to be more mindful about the broader environment rather than ‘cyber' itself. Whether ‘cyber ‘is in automotive or transportation we need to be aware of the prevalence of attacks and deal with them. I hope that with a lot of innovation and new technology, more policies and work will happen and revolve around this in the next few years.”
John Yong, Senior Vice President, Certis Cisco/Quann (second from left in picture)

Thinking Beyond The Box
“At the University of Warwick, we believe that what cybersecurity needs apart from traditional computer scientists coming to the field are psychologists as humanity experts and business consultants who can bring all of this different elements to cyber security. They think very differently to us and the way they think is of great value to us.”

“In the Masters Course, a number of the students come from non-computing background. This is very useful for the cohort as it enables the cohort think outside the black box of cyber security.”
Harjinder Lallie, Principal Teaching Fellow, The University of Warwick (second from right in picture)

Defining Dark Innovation
“Whether innovation is dark or not should be determined by the purpose. Some innovations are used for both positive and negative sides. For example, some innovations are developed to protect the witness for organised crime. So from a government perspective, it is very positive but when criminals use it, it becomes terribly negative.”
Dr Duncan Hine, Principal Fellow, The University of Warwick (first from right in picture)

Big Data And Collaboration
“Putting cybersecurity analytics to work requires more than data alone. International relations and cyber diplomacy are equally important! Cyber attacks are often transnational in nature, and international collaboration is key to acquire data for analytics, and to facilitate investigation of incidents originating from other countries.”
Huang Shao Fei, President, Singapore Computer Society Infocomm Security Chapter (first from left in picture)

Posted online,  26 June 2018