Ho See Fong was honored to participate as a panelist at the 20th International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) WG 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection (ICCIP 2026), held at Singapore Institute of Technology, hashtagPunggolDigitalDistrict.
It was a privilege to sit alongside top practitioners in the cybersecurity field—including Mr Zach Tudor (Idaho National Laboratory ) and Mr Dicky Wong (Syber Couture)—to discuss “Critical Infrastructure Without Borders.” – moderated by Panel Chair, Prof Daisuke Mashima, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
Coming from the energy and consultancy space, it was a humbling experience to share the stage with some of the world’s leading cybersecurity experts. My goal was to highlight a truth that is becoming increasingly clear: for the Energy Transition to work, Cybersecurity must be foundational.
For nations like Singapore, the impetus to accelerate integration of renewable sources, adopt low-carbon technologies, and establish regional energy interconnects has never been greater.
However, as we “open up the grid” for more control and participation through Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), we are simultaneously expanding the attack surface for cyber threats.
Key takeaways from the session:
🔹 The urgency of adopting a “Cyber-Informed Engineering” (CIE) mindset—building security into our energy systems from the ground up, not as an afterthought.
🔹 The challenges and opportunities of an interconnected ASEAN regional grid. Taking a leaf from the European Interconnected Grid, cybersecurity defence must go regional as well.
🔹 Why the transition to clean energy must go hand-in-hand with robust cybersecurity defenses to ensure national resilience.
A huge thank you to my fellow panelists for the insightful exchange. Special thanks to Matthew Chew in leading HY into this realm of cybersecurity engineering.
Read more about the conference here
