SINGAPORE - The wave of digitalisation sweeping across businesses and impacting individuals alike amid the Covid-19 pandemic underscores the increasing importance of staying safe online.

Against this backdrop, cyber safety concerns will be the focus of discussion in the upcoming webinar organised by The Straits Times, to be held from 12.30pm to 2pm on Dec 9.

The Digitalisation and Cyber security webinar, free for all ST readers, is the third in the ST Reset 2021 webinar series that aims to put the pressing issues of the day in context for readers.

Figures from the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) in November showed that cyber attacks have intensified in the first 10 months of this year.

There were 61 ransomware attacks on businesses from January to last month (Oct), almost double the 35 cases for the whole of last year.

Ransomware is malware that infects unprotected computers and locks them down with a note demanding ransom.

Tellingly, the spike in the number of local cases coincided with the start of Singapore's circuit breaker period on April 7, when most business activities were halted and workers were told to work from home, said the CSA.

CSA chief executive David Koh will be among four experts from Singapore's technology sector taking part in the webinar session, which be will be moderated by ST Technology Editor Irene Tham.

The other three speakers are: Associate Professor Steven Wong from the Singapore Institute of Technology, Associate Professor Chang Ee-Chien from the National University of Singapore School of Computing, and Mr Benjamin Ang, head of the Cyber Homeland Defence programme at the Centre of Excellence for National Security, a policy research think tank.

Other topics that will be discussed include the rising prevalence of online scams from WhatsApp hijacking, QR code scams and phishing e-mails.

Those interested in the webinar can sign up at str.sg/Jbhg before 3pm on Dec 7.

The next webinar in the series will be on job losses and opportunities in 2021.