01
November
2019
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18:12
Asia/Singapore

Building a trusted cyber environment

Ms Januszkiewicz giving a demonstration of how hackers could attack a company’s passwords

Members of the cyber community put their minds together to work towards cyber resilience at the inaugural “Cyber N’US”, organised by NUS Information Technology (NUS IT) and Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at Block71 (ICE71). The 250 guests included thought leaders, representatives from the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, students from institutes of higher learning, and industry players.

Ms Paula Januszkiewicz, Founder and CEO of CQURE & Regional Director of Microsoft, delivered the keynote speech. A world-class cybersecurity expert with 15 years of experience in the field of cybersecurity, Ms Januszkiewicz’s talk addressed various key issues in the cybersecurity space and delved into the potential vulnerabilities in companies’ security systems. She also shared her experiences in ethical hacking, and how some basic changes in behaviour could protect an entire company from a malicious cyber-attack.

Ms Januszkiewicz also conducted a workshop focusing on vulnerabilities in credentials. She spoke on potential password vulnerabilities, credentials internals, encryption and decryption methods, as well as techniques for monitoring where and how credentials can be stored and how this information can be used in an attack. Participants were surprised by the unexpected weaknesses found even in the most seemingly secure systems, but were also taught various measures to prevent the potential attacks.

Other speakers at the event included Mr Lim Thian Chin, Director of Critical Information Infrastructure at the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, who spoke on “Cybersecurity Challenges Faced by the Critical Information Infrastructure in Singapore”, as well as Mr Ang Leong Boon, head of IT Security at NUS, who walked the audience through conducting an effective phishing simulation drill in order to highlight potential phishing threats.

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From left: Mr Hor, Mr Chudgar, Ms Januszkiewicz, Mr Lim, and Mr Tan, at the panel

Cyber N’US also featured a panel discussion on “Unity in Diversity in Cybersecurity”, moderated by Mr Tommy Hor, Chief Information Technology Officer of NUS, and featuring panellists Mr Vivek Chudgar, Senior Director at FireEye-Mandiant Consulting; Ms Januszkiewicz, Mr Lim, and Mr Freddy Tan, Vice President of Cyber Security Solutions & Services in Ensign Infosecurity. The panel discussed several issues such as the cybersecurity risks in organisations, the factors affecting the increasing need for cybersecurity, as well as the ways in which the level of cybersecurity can be improved.  

With this as a start, we look forward to working together towards a safe and trusted cyber environment.

 

The audience also heard the perspective of an entrepreneur when Dr Omaru Maruatona, CEO of NUS Enterprise start-up Aiculus, shared his journey in cybersecurity. Aiculus is a cyber-artificial intelligence company which develops solutions that help organisations fully and securely leverage technology. From the challenges faced, characteristics of the current market, to the benefits he has gained as a cybersecurity entrepreneur, Dr Maruatona’s sharing was an inspiring one for the entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience.

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Winners of the Bug Bounty Challenge 2019

Aside from the various talks and speakers, the winners of the Bug Bounty Challenge 2019 were honoured. This three-week challenge saw more than 200 students from across the University including the Institute of Systems Science at NUS, the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences & Engineering and NUS Computing take on the task of sieving out vulnerabilities in the NUS cybersecurity system.

“We would like to thank the teams from NUS IT and ICE71 for working hard to make this event a great success, and we hope that all our guests had an enriching time developing their knowledge and skills on cybersecurity. With this as a start, we look forward to working together towards a safe and trusted cyber environment,” said Mr Tommy Hor, Chief Information Technology Officer of NUS.

By NUS Enterprise