Yang Berhormat Pengiran Dato Seri Setia Shamhary bin Pengiran Dato Paduka Haji Mustapha, Minister of Transport and Infocommunications as the Minister-in-charge of Cybersecurity, represented Brunei Darussalam at the 9th ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity (AMCC), that was held in conjunction with the 9th Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW), from 14th to 17th October 2024 in the Republic of Singapore.
9TH SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL CYBER WEEK (SICW)
With the theme “Trust and Security in the Digital Era”, the 9th SICW was officiated by His Excellency Teo Chee Hean, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security, Republic of Singapore.
During the Opening Plenary, Yang Berhormat Minister of Transport and Infocommunications participated as a panelist during the High-Level Panel session on “Global Digital Governance: Promise or Pipedream?”. Yang Berhormat Minister shared Brunei Darussalam’s perspective on navigating the complexities of global digital policies, emphasized the importance of international cooperation in achieving equitable and inclusive digital governance. Yang Berhormat Minister also addressed the potential risks of the misuse and unregulated proliferation of digital technologies.
9TH ASEAN MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON CYBERSECURITY (AMCC) & LAUNCH OF THE ASEAN REGIONAL COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM (CERT)
During the 9th AMCC, which was chaired by Her Excellency Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information, and Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, Singapore, saw ASEAN Ministers launched the ASEAN Regional Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). The ASEAN Regional CERT will enable stronger regional cybersecurity incident response coordination and critical information infrastructure (CII) protection cooperation, including for cross-border CII such as banking, finance, communications and transportation.
Yang Berhormat Minister underscored that the operationalization of the ASEAN Regional CERT as a crucial step in ASEAN’s effort to mitigate cyber threats especially with ASEAN Member States being confronted with increasingly more complex and AI-enabled cyber threats. Yang Berhormat Minister highlighted the importance of the ASEAN Regional CERT Taskforce in consolidating existing efforts into ‘playbooks of good practices’ to be shared across the region. The lessons learned and experiences gained by ASEAN Member States over the years will significantly enhance capacities in incident response, crisis management, and post-incident recovery.
Recent major cyber incidents has reinforced the need for closer collaboration among ASEAN Member States, allowing for quicker and more effective responses to threats, especially those that cross borders. This collaborative approach extends to Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP), where promoting CIIP among national CERTs will help ASEAN Member States meet their commitments under the Regional Action Plan for implementing cybersecurity norms.
BILATERAL ENGAGEMENTS AND WORKING VISITS
On the sidelines of the 9th SICW and 9th AMCC, Yang Berhormat Minister held bilateral meetings with His Excellency Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Digital for Malaysia; His Excellency Ambassador Nathaniel C. Fick, U.S. Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy, United States of America and the delegation from the U.S Chamber of Commerce. The discussion centered on exchanging views and best practices in cybersecurity, with a focus on current regional development, key challenges, and areas of mutual interest to strengthen bilateral relations. Yang Berhormat Minister also led working visitS for members of the National Cyber Security Committee (Jawatankuasa Kebangsaan Keselamatan Siber) to the GovWare Conference and Exhibition 2024 and to the offices of major social media platforms based in Singapore, including Meta, Microsoft, as well as organizations including Open Government Product Singapore, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and various cybersecurity related companies. The National Cyber Security Committee (Jawatankuasa Kebangsaan Keselamatan Siber) delegation also had the opportunity to visit Anti-Scam Centre Singapore. These visitsfocused on establishing collaboration, enhancing capacity, strengthening best practices, and addressing critical issues such as online scams, fraud and cybersecurity threats.
Accompanying Yang Berhormat Minister were Yang Mulia Awang Haji Hairul Mohd Daud bin Haji Abdul Karim, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Infocommunications), Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC); Yang Mulia Awang Shamsul Bahri bin Haji Kamis, Interim Commissioner of Cyber Security Brunei (CSB); and senior officials from the Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC). For the working visit, they were joined by members and representatives of the National Cyber Security Committee (Jawatankuasa Kebangsaan Keselamatan Siber), comprising of officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, Royal Brunei Police Force, Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI), and Cyber Security Brunei (CSB).
Prepared by:
Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications, Brunei Darussalam
21st October 2024
