Spying in Singapore? Inevitable given hosting of high-level events amid geopolitical tensions, say experts

After the leak of a sensitive German defence call on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow, analysts explain why"these sorts of things may happen from time to time" here.LinkedIn

"In terms of the geopolitical location of Singapore, to me it's no surprise. Since the Cold War, long before the digital age, we were already a base of operations by both the Communist powers and the Western powers." Mr Benjamin Ang, RSIS senior fellow and head of the RSIS' Centre of Excellence for National Security, echoed this.

Singapore has also been trusted to host historic talks like the 2018 Trump-Kim summit between the US and North Korean leaders, and the 2015 Xi-Ma meeting between Chinese and Taiwanese presidents. "One must presume that episodes like these are also scrutinised closely by our own security services," he added."But any follow-up would necessarily be behind the scenes. This is in the nature of how these agencies work."Intelligence operations in Singapore pre-date the country's independence and have been carried out at high-level events to this day.

Singapore's government said the attack was"the work of an advanced persistent threat group" and that such groups are"usually state-linked". "Although there are many theories, we do not know and will probably never know, as the Germans have been keen to draw a veil over this ," he said. Wi-Fi networks should be secured by strong passwords, network encryption and firewall protection, while electronic devices should be updated with the latest security patches.

Crowne Plaza Changi Airport's manager Abdul Hafiq said the hotel works closely with guests' security teams for confidential meetings or sensitive discussions. Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy's general manager Ms Priscilla Ng said its safeguards include network segmentation and isolation protocols within the hotel's IT infrastructure.

He pointed out that public Wi-Fi is inherently insecure as it does not require authentication to establish a network connection.

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