Boeing opens cyber facility in Singapore.

• Author: Versprille, Allyson

* Boeing opened a cyber analytics facility in Singapore in July that it hopes will increase collaboration with U.S. partners, said a company executive.

"The center is as much about analysis as it is about collaboration," said Per Beith, director of Boeing's information security solutions. And "you can't just collaborate in a region. You really need to collaborate across the allies, across the world, because that's how business is done today."

The new facility in Singapore, which is the first international facility of its kind for the company, will employ local residents, Beith said.

It's critical "that you can hire and train people locally who understand the culture, who understand the economy, who understand the politics of that particular region because all of those elements are part of understanding the cyber threat problem," he said. Training locals is not only cost effective but is beneficial to the company because a foreign government is more likely to grant citizens rather than non-citizens access to sensitive information, he added.

Additionally, international cyber analytics facilities give the company's U.S. counterpart an advantage when dealing with domestic attacks, Beith said. "We're... looking at what's happening around the world because what happens in one region in the world is likely to carry over into other regions of the world."

Boeing chose Singapore because of its business friendly nature, stability and strong need for better cyber protections, Beith said. Enhancing online security in the region also provides an advantage to Boeing...