UK teams up with Singapore in anti-hacking stance

The UK and Singapore governments are joining forces in the fight against cyber crime. The collaboration stems from a research programme costing 5.1m Singaporean dollars, or just under £2.5m.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the UK’s primary governmental agency for physical sciences and engineering training, and finance research, has partnered with the National Research Foundation, which is Singapore’s governmental department that builds R&D capabilities and finances strategic schemes. Together, they have announced six collaborative projects which will be implemented by UK and Singapore universities.

The chosen projects were selected from  22 proposals that were assessed by cyber experts from both countries.

Matt Hancock, the UK Cabinet Office Minister, said:

“The research partnership between British and Singaporean universities will help both of our countries keep pace with the evolving cyber threat.

“I have no doubt that these projects will produce ground-breaking cyber security research and help protect us from threats online.”

The UK made a recent announcement that it will be increasing its investment in protecting the country from cyber attacks by 100%. This will bring their expenditure to a total of £1.19bn over a five-year period. Combined with core cyber investment, the UK’s total cyber expenditure will stand at over £3.2bn.

Singapore unveiled its new Cyber Security Agency in April last year and intends to increase its workforce by 100%, bringing the tally to 200.

We may see more global cooperation in a tough stance on cyber crime, as it is an issue for so many countries right now. On an SME level, however, the strategy remains the same – mmaking cyber security jobs available and attracting the most talented of cyber professionals.