Announced 2 months back after a series of cyber attacks across this region, Singapore took an unprecedented step by completely banning access to the internet for over 100,000 terminals in the public service sector.

South East Asia was reported as a hotbed for Malware attacks as noticed by Cyber Defense center monitoring division at Microsoft Singapore office. One of many centers set up by the software company to combat the ever increasing threat of cyber criminals. According to a recent report by Computer Weekly the Singapore government is not only beefing up security with prevention but also in the works for a new cyber security law that could question individual privacy invasion. The country that keeps close vigil on its citizen online and offline, will now have more autonomy on its people.

Singapore’s main news paper, The Straits Times added that the governments public service officers would no longer be accessing the internet from their work terminals from May 2017. The rule will apply to all public service officers across all government agencies, ministries and statutory boards in the country. Affecting nearly 100,000 computer terminals.

However, public servants will still be able to access the internet through their personal devices that are not linked to the government e-mail systems. Their workstations will also remain connected to the government’s Intranet and will be able to send their work emails to their private accounts, if required.

The move is to close potential leaks that leaves gaps for criminals to send their dangerous malware’s through. A closed intranet loop will keep the system safe and allow IT technicians to monitor movements and keep access secure.

Now the question will be, will our government and others in the region take similar steps to stifle these criminals, and at what price? Watch the space as it develops.