A successful public-private partnership will require the active participation of all parties. Since the report mentions further public consultation, it should follow the best practices of this round, which include allowing the public contributions to influence decisions, recognising and communicating the needs and interests of all participants, and communicating to participants how their input affected the decisions. It would be unrealistic to expect the authority to implement every input, but every input should be recognised, to encourage participation in future processes.

On the other hand, industry, civil society, experts, academics and business owners should continue to contribute frankly and vigorously to the discussion. The healthy dialogue that has arisen from this public consultation is a good start, and will be essential in the years to come as cyber security develops in ways we cannot imagine today.

…Benjamin Ang is Senior Fellow/ Head of Cyber and Homeland Defence, Centre of Excellence for National Security, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.