CYBERSECURITY AND LEGISLATION: THE CASE STUDY OF SINGAPORE

Many South-East Asian Nations member states lack a legislative or regulatory framework. This is in the context of the view that cyberspace is global and thus local sovereignty principles are less to be applied. the South-East Asian Nations member states have appointed Singapore in 2018 to propose a mechanism to enhance cyber coordination and agreed in principle to certain voluntary norms of behavior in cyberspace. Singapore was one of the earliest Southeast Asian states to enact its Computer Misuse Act in 1993, and later to publish its national Cybersecurity Strategy in 2016, and to enact its Cybersecurity Act in 2018. This chapter looks at the evolution of cybersecurity legislation in Singapore and examines Singapore as a case study of how a small state in Asia has approached cybersecurity legislation.