SG Spy Ring

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   Financial Times, September 4, 1996, p. 4. 
 
 
   Singapore looks to superhighway 
 
   By James Kynge in Kuala Lumpur 
 
 
   Singapore took another step toward its vision of becoming 
   an "intelligent island" yesterday, announcing an initiative 
   to link the city-state's main on-line networks. 
 
   Mr Goh Chee Wee, Singapore's minister of state for 
   communications, said the "internetwork hub" would link 
   service providers of the Internet, government on-line 
   networks, commercial networks and some others. 
 
   Singapore's move follows an ambitious scheme announced by 
   neighbour Malaysia last month to launch an "information 
   superhighway" designed to attract the world's leading 
   information technology companies to Kuala Lumpur. 
 
   The perceived advantage in Singapore's initiative is that 
   users will be able to access all networks using a single 
   leased line, rather than the separate lines currently 
   necessary. 
 
   The hub will use a single set of national standards, 
   meaning inter-operability between networks becomes easier. 
 
   Mr Goh said the hub should be up and running by the end of 
   the year. A mechanism to identify users electronically 
   would be incorporated into the hub network next year, 
   paving the way for secure operations such as payments, 
   banking and confidential correspondence. 
 
   The move is part of the Information Technology 2000 
   masterplan, a scheme which aims to accomplish the sometimes 
   conflicting aims of exploiting the information superhighway 
   to its full potential while continuing to insulate 
   Singaporeans from undesired influences. 
 
   From September 15, the city-state will implement its first 
   big attempt to police cyberspace. From then all Internet 
   providers must channel more than 120,000 subscribers on the 
   island through "proxy servers" before they reach the net. 
 
   These servers will check every Internet site a subscriber 
   requests and block access to a about a dozen banned sites 
   known to display pornography. The government has warned 
   against material deemed politically subversive or inciting 
   religious disharmony. 
 
   [End]