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As cyber piranhas circle, uncomfortable alliances must hold the line
Tackling digital threats sometimes requires defenders to make common cause with those they fundamentally oppose.
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What stands between chaos and order in the cyberworld is not consensus among the like-minded, but real-world talk with those you fundamentally disagree with, says the writer.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: MANNY FRANCISCO
At one of the world’s biggest cybersecurity forums, an eminent speaker delivers a TED-style keynote, flashing a slide of fish facing down a shark. His message is that the rapid spread of cyber threats need not breed despondency – provided countries and companies act in sync.
An industry outsider like this columnist, sitting through the recently concluded Singapore International Cyber Week, could use more of that optimism. The four-day event offered a snapshot from the cyber trenches that tends towards the grim rather than the cheerful. Even that slide invites a second reading: it could just as easily depict piranhas circling us in a world now irrevocably tethered to the internet.
