The Inception of ICE71!
On 23 March, BLOCK71 Singapore saw the inception of ICE71, ‘Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at Block71’, Singapore’s first cybersecurity start-up hub. The event was attended by about 150 people, comprising corporates, academia, Government, industry, media and local and international start-ups. This joint initiative by Singtel Innov8 and NUS Enterprise will strengthen strengthen Singapore’s growing cybersecurity ecosystem by attracting and developing competencies and deep technologies to help mitigate the rapidly increasing cybersecurity risks in the region.
The launch event kicked-off with welcome remarks by Dr Lily Chan, CEO of NUS Enterprise and Edgar Hardless, CEO of Singtel Innov8. Following which, James Chappell, CTO & Co-founder, Digital Shadows, shared his thoughts on the current cybersecurity landscape. After that, there was a panel discussion titled: Why ICE71? What are the benefits to the ecosystem?, which was moderated by Daniel Seal, Founder & CEO, Unbound and fielded the following speakers: Grace Cassy, co-founder of Cylon, Mathias Chin, founder and CEO of Banff Cyber, Ken Baylor, Regional VP APAC of Attivo, Ken Low, Director, Cybersecurity of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Selwyn Sean Scharnhost, Director, Ecosystem Development, Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore (CSA). The panelists, Dr Lily and Mr Hardless took questions from the floor after the panel discussion ended. The evening concluded with a lively networking session over a delectable spread and drinks.
The cybersecurity theme underlies the spatial graphic designs at the ICE71 SCALE (Landing Pad) and ICE71 Accelerate (Accelerator Programme) areas. The primary colours used in the spaces are Black, White and Grey. These reflect the colours often used to describe hacker activities. Hackers are generally categorised by type of metaphorical “hat” they don: “white hat”, “grey hat”, and “black hat”. There are stylised depictions of Alan Turing, who is considered to be considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, and Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and a strong advocate for net neutrality and the protection of the web’s future.
Supported by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and the Infocommunications and Media Development Authority (IMDA), ICE71 is Singapore’s first integrated cybersecurity startup hub, supporting and developing early and growth stage cybersecurity entrepreneurs and startup from around the world.
ICE71 will run a range of programmes designed to support cybersecurity individuals and startup from idea development to the creation, acceleration and scaling of cybersecurity startup. In addition, through the ICE71 community, the startup community will be provided with go-to-market access, introductions to corporates and channel partners.
If your start-up is keen to play a part in building the cybersecurity ecosystem, visit ICE71 or contact Claire Li (claireli@nus.edu.sg) for more information.
Are you an entrepreneur working on a cool product and looking for more than just a co-working space ? Do apply for a hotdesk here and become part of the exciting community that we offer at BLOCK71 Singapore.
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