Debated in Parliament on 6 Aug 2024.
Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) whether there will be actions taken to strengthen the response and recovery of essential services dependent on digital platforms to minimise the impact of outages or disruptions of services in view of the outage caused by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s software update on 19 July 2024; and (b) whether there will be further requirements for organisations and businesses that provide essential services to have robust business continuity plans and to test them regularly.
Ms Ng Ling Ling asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) what are the key learning points for Singapore’s cybersecurity strategy from the CrowdStrike outage on 19 July 2024; and (b) how are key Public Service systems protected from risks of outage from such single point of failure.
Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) what are the learning points from the global outage of IT systems related to Microsoft Azure and CrowdStrike on 19 July 2024; (b) how does the Ministry support companies in Singapore whose services to the public are affected by the outage; and (c) whether guidelines or legislation will be considered to safeguard against hidden technological dependencies on a small handful of technology companies.
Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) what is Singapore’s approach to ensure economic continuity to address the risk arising from integration of third-party software into our critical digital infrastructure; (b) how much coordination with the relevant Government agencies is required of third-party software suppliers when they make independent changes to their software which may affect the overall system; and (c) whether the Ministry will require key digital suppliers to conduct regular drills simulating different incident scenarios and test the joint response plans towards these incidents.
Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information in light of the global disruption of systems related to CrowdStrike on 19 July 2024 (a) how does the Ministry ensure that critical infrastructure in Singapore is not overly dependent on a small group of providers; and (b) how has the Ministry strengthened resilience in the technology infrastructure in Singapore.
Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) what measures are in place to protect Singapore’s critical business and aviation infrastructure from cyber outages, such as the recent incidents affecting the banks and Changi Airport; (b) what contingency plans and support systems are available during such outages and how are these made known to the affected stakeholders; and (c) how can the Ministry work with international partners and cybersecurity firms to mitigate the risks of such outages.
These questions for written answer will be addressed by oral reply to similar questions on the Order Paper for 7 August 2024. [Please refer to "Singapore's Preparedness for Global Technology Outages and Impact of Recent CrowdStrike Incident", Official Report, 7 August 2024, Vol 95, Issue 139, Oral Answers to Questions section.]
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