As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a year marked by rapid digitalisation at an unprecedented pace. Experts speaking at a Straits Times webinar on digitalisation and cyber security on Wednesday warned of the dangers lurking online and how to guard against them. Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) chief executive David Koh, who was among the four panellists, noted that the agency handled 60 ransomware cases from January to October, almost twice the 35 cases reported last year. Mr Koh was joined at the webinar by Associate Professor Steven Wong from the Singapore Institute of Technology, Associate Professor Chang Ee-Chien from the National University of Singapore’s School of Computing, and Mr Benjamin Ang, head of the Cyber and Homeland Defence Programme at the Centre of Excellence for National Security, RSIS. Mr Ang recounted how – in his capacity as an executive committee member of the Internet Society’s Singapore chapter – he once received a phishing e-mail that impersonated the society’s incumbent president to ask the treasurer to transfer some money out of a bank to pay a vendor. A phone call to the president confirmed that no such e-mail had been sent, and the transaction was aborted. Mr Ang said: “(It) comes down to the culture in organisations. Our organisations need more digital empathy.