The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA of Singapore unveils advisory guidelines to reduce occurrences of disruptions to cloud services and data centers.
These guidelines will help cloud service providers and data centres to improve their security and ensure continuity by assessing risks and planning for incidents.
GUIDELINES FOR CLOUD SERVICES AND DATA CENTRES:
These recommendations will guide cloud service providers in establishing effective data management and preparing for potential disasters, among other key actions.
The guidelines will focus on seven key areas: governance, security, operations, administration, customer access, isolation, and resilience.
These guidelines will help data centre operators implement systems that promote continuous operations and reduce service interruptions.
“This includes guidance on implementing business continuity policies, controls and processes, and continuously reviewing and improving them,” IMDA said, adding that measures will also address cybersecurity risks in data centres.
IMPROVING SINGAPORE’S DIGITAL SECURITY:
In 2024, the Cybersecurity Act was amended to tackle cybersecurity risks in digital infrastructure. The new guidelines aim to enhance the resilience and security of cloud services and will support the upcoming Digital Infrastructure Act (DIA). As technological developments advance, the guidelines introduced will also be updated.
“A whole-of-ecosystem approach is required to ensure that our economy and society continue to reap the benefits of digitalisation while being prepared to manage digital disruptions,” said the authority.
In October 2023, DBS and Citibank had a 12-hour outage, preventing customers from using banking apps, online services, and ATMs.
Last September, a fire at the Digital Realty data center in Loyang disrupted services for companies such as Lazada, Bytedance, and Alibaba Cloud.
The IMDA noted that such disruptions can cause major inconveniences and negatively affect Singapore’s economy.
“With the right practices, such disruptive occurrences can be minimised, and services can be restored quickly when a disruption occurs,” said the authority.