Singapore To Cut Off Public Servants From the Internet (theguardian.com) 59
Singapore is planning to cut off web access for public servants as a defence against potential cyber attack, Reuters reports. The local government's move has already been criticized by many, who say that it marks a retreat for a technologically advanced city-state that has trademarked the term "smart nation". From an article on The Guardian: Some security experts say the policy, due to be in place by May, risks damaging productivity among civil servants and those working at more than four dozen statutory boards, and cutting them off from the people they serve. It may only raise slightly the defensive walls against cyber attack, they say. Ben Desjardins, director of security solutions at network security firm Radware, called it "one of the more extreme measures I can recall by a large public organisation to combat cyber security risks." Stephen Dane, a Hong Kong-based managing director at networking company Cisco Systems, said it was "a most unusual situation" and Ramki Thurimella, chair of the computer science department at the University of Denver, called it both "unprecedented" and "a little excessive".
Re: (Score:2)
How do I get into the Singapore tablet sales market, so I can sell to the civil service customer for goofing off?
A little? (Score:2)
A little would be requiring them to go through a firewall that only allowed connections to and from govt websites.
Cutting them off from the internet entirely is very excessive.
Re: (Score:2)
I bet they'd get a lot more done.
Re: (Score:3)
I once made a list of the usual sites that distracted me from work, and black-holed them in my hosts file. At first I was amazed at how often I would reflexively attempt to visit one of those sites before remembering my self-imposed blockade.
Interestingly, I don't think it made much of a difference in my overall productivity. I find that creative output comes in waves... I have days of pure concentration and peak output, followed by lulls where I occupy myself with busywork. The blockade really only impac
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
this is misreported, as it was back in June when the policy was first announced. They are planning on having a separate network for desktops that can connect to sensitive databases (eg think of citizenship/passport etc functions), and those desktops won't have internet access. I guess those civil servants in such a position will have 2 computers on their desktop.
This is not "all civil servants are now banned from facebook/google at work".
Smart nation (TM)!!! (Score:2)
The local government's move has already been criticized by many, who say that it marks a retreat for a technologically advanced city-state that has trademarked the term "smart nation".
I would say that it's the non-technological equivalent of putting a universal firewall around that network, which contains everything to an intranet. By doing this, Singapore is definitely proving itself worthy of that trademark!
Re: (Score:3)
Other nations sold or opened their networks allowing for some easy, deep and amazing finds with human and computer networks.
Australia had its gov, shared mil networks totally mapped out over decades by a few other nations. A mix of human access and classic computer work showed huge gaps in most nations efforts to secure their own mil and gov networks from low level insiders wondering around an
Re: (Score:3)
One thing I'd like to understand - why would government computers of any country need connection outside their own intranet? Not including servers for public services, such as a DMV, but what exactly would government employees need that's outside the network - work related? Not including things like maintaining their FaceBook or Twitter pages. I would think that everything should be self contained within the government
Re: (Score:1)
Singapore's government probably contracts out for that kind of work. There aren't many 'government programmers' actually needed for a city-state.
Why most places of employment feel the need for a PC sitting on every employee's desk is a mystery, and could be something done away with for many positions.
Re: (Score:2)
What else would you suppose they use? Email on a phone? That's fine for short messages, but who wants to be stuck writing documents of any length on a phone?
Re: (Score:1)
Email at the workplace doesn't require any sort of web access.
Other than purchasing agents, most regular employees don't need to buy from outside the organization.
Re: (Score:2)
In our day, there were Fine Manuals to read...
Re: (Score:1)
People do all sorts of things at the workplace to get fired for doing.
I mean, if you're going to break the rules, have sex with co-workers or steal equipment and materials or do something fun.
Re: (Score:2)
Productivity? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Not New (Score:2)
An anonymous reader writes:
Government workers in Singapore will return to a 1990s-level of net connectivity from May of 2017, as the domestic government has decided to block internet access on all of its 100,000 of
Air-gapped government computing? Why not? (Score:3, Insightful)
If my government decided to put all of its employees on a separate, air-gapped network for doing government business, that would seem like a step in the right direction to me.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
As requested -- it's not a good idea because many would not be very happy working in such an environment.
And, what does "it works" mean -- what have you achieved through this process?
Doesn't everybody have a phone on which they check personal emails (and post on slashdot
Re: (Score:3)
As requested -- it's not a good idea because many would not be very happy working in such an environment.
Really? Sally is irritated she can't check Facebook during the work day so let's expose our intranet to hacking?
Re: (Score:2)
Millions are checking facebook from work without their intranet being backed. You can lower the chances of being hacked quite a bit without resorting to extremes.
And, if Sally is irritated, Sally will not work as well, or will not work there at all (any more). I think many companies employing software and hardware developers have long ago learned that keeping Sally happy is the best way to get a p
Re: (Score:2)
Millions are checking facebook from work without their intranet being backed. You can lower the chances of being hacked quite a bit without resorting to extremes.
If your spouse was killed by a drunk driver, would you feel better knowing that millions of drunk drivers didn't kill anyone? It's one of those things such that the consequences are so dire taking extreme measures is warranted. A hack can be business ending, or in the case of government agencies people could lose their lives.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you're taking things to extremes. Drunk driving has no redeeming qualities. Having full internet access at work has a significant positive impact on productivity.
Similarly, we'r
Re: (Score:2)
>And no, you do not need Google to do your job in 99% of the cases.
I've used it twice this morning, to find some standards documents.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure all the top recruits are just thrilled about the prospect of working for your company!
Make them walk into a jail cell.. (Score:1)
ok (Score:2)
Singapore To Cut Off Public Servants From the Internet
Cool, thanks.