Task force to bolster tech resilience in wake of global outage

It will look into CrowdStrike incident and see if more enhancements are required

- Zhaki Abdullah

A task force has been set up to look into new ways to enhance Singapore's tech resilience in the wake of July's global tech outage caused by cyber-security firm CrowdStrike.

Set up by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), the task force will engage relevant partners to gain insights into the incident, which disrupted banks, hospitals and emergency lines around the world.

The task force will also assess if further measures should be taken to improve Singapore's resilience when such disruptions occur, Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo told Parliament on Aug 7.

"IT systems may experience outages and disruptions from time to time. In this particular instance, it is not yet fully understood what caused a relatively routine software update to (create) such major disruptions around the world," said Mrs Teo.

She was responding to questions from seven MPs about Singapore's response to the incident.

Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC) asked what MDDI's contingency plans were for such global tech outages that could impact Singapore's socio-economic security. Mr Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) asked whether the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore had updated its threat and risk assessment protocols to cover similar supply chain risks.

On July 19, a faulty software update issued by CrowdStrike crashed about 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide.

Mrs Teo noted that government services here, as well as most essential services, were unaffected by the outage.