For Jack, 28, an employee at the Singapore Tourism Board, creating decks and presentation slides are supposed to be one of the easiest tasks at the office.

But thanks to the new cybersecurity policy which cut internet access on civil servants’ computers last May, what used to be a simple straightforward drag-and-drop on his computer has become a cumbersome process.

Now that his terminal has been isolated from the outside world, like a computer in a North Korean laboratory, Jack literally has to walk to another workstation with internet connectivity whenever he needs to download attachments from companies and external partners.

It’s like the ’90s all over again, and this happens at least a few times every day.

“It was really frustrating in the beginning because you had to keep moving about just to download a few files that are necessary for your work, and it really hurt our productivity,” Jack tells me.

“Also, we have only two internet terminals shared among 20 people in the department – that already sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”