Chapter 3 Upping the Game on Singapore’s Cybersecurity Featured Topic Featured Topic SG Cyber Women Cyber Competitions The World of Science — Computer Security Hwa Chong Institution — MINDEF Cyberthon Cyberthon 2019 was an inaugural cybersecurity competition for Junior College (JC) and Centralised Institute (CI) students. It was organised by Hwa Chong Institution (HCI), and supported by MINDEF’s Defence Cyber Organisation (DCO) and Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT). Ms Sim Ann (Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information) delivering opening remarks at the inaugural Women in Cyber event, organised as part of SICW 2019. Source: CSA. SG Cyber Women, a programme under the SG Cyber Talent initiative, aims to interest and develop women in a cybersecurity career. Source: CSA. The SG Cyber Women (#SGCyberWomen) is a national programme driven by CSA in collaboration with industry partners to encourage more women to join the cybersecurity workforce. The initiative attracts students and professionals from related fields to engender more diversity in Singapore’s cybersecurity talent pipeline. In 2019, CSA and industry partners reached out to at least 3,000 participants through various channels. CSA brought together the Singapore Computing Society (SCS), Division Zero, Association of Information Security Professionals (AiSP) and ISACA Singapore Chapter to organise career mentoring sessions for women. AiSP conducted career 40 SINGAPORE CYBER LANDSCAPE 2019 talks at girls’ schools, and also launched a programme that offers one-to-one career mentoring from cybersecurity practitioners and leaders for female students in Institutes of Technical Education, polytechnics and universities. During SICW 2019, CSA organised the inaugural Women in Cyber event for 200 participants in collaboration with the High Commission of Canada and with support from the Australian and British High Commissions. CSA also supported the Women in Cybersecurity (WoSEC)’s inaugural Capture-The-Flag (CTF) for Girls in July 2019, which attracted some 50 tertiary students and professionals. Students intently honing their cyber skills at the Capturethe-Flag challenge, as part of the World of Science — Computer Security enrichment programme. Source: DSO. The World of Science — Computer Security is a four-day enrichment programme held during the June school holidays, as part of the Young Defence Scientist Programme. The module covers a wide spectrum of cyber issues, including network, mobile, hardware and web security. Eager students get to learn first-hand from experienced DSO researchers working in the field. Participants are also exposed to both defensive and redteaming cyber techniques, including intrusion detection, threat hunting, digital forensics, software vulnerability discovery, and software exploitation. For the more advanced students, they are challenged with more complex topics such as binary analysis to understand the deep internal workings of software. Last year, DSO hosted 25 students across 12 schools for the module, which culminated in a seven-hour Capture-the-Flag challenge to test the skills they learnt from the course. The experience did not end there as these students also got an opportunity to intern at the Young Defence Scientists Programme’s research programme, where they got to work alongside DSO mentors on actual research projects. The competition aimed to excite and inspire students in cybersecurity by providing glimpses of the varied and important roles of a cybersecurity professional. This competition was organised exclusively for JC and CI students, and brought together 96 students from 15 different schools to compete on 6 July 2019. The Cyberthon comprised a pre-competition training phase followed by the competition. The training was designed to impart fundamental cyber knowledge and skills to students. The competition adopted a Jeopardy-style “Capture the Flag” format, which was suitable for students with minimal hands-on experience in computer science and cybersecurity. The students had opportunities to test their cybersecurity abilities across a variety of challenges including cryptography, penetration testing and web exploitation. Such competitions are part of MINDEF’s efforts to increase interest in cybersecurity and develop a talent base in this field. Students interested in considering a career in cybersecurity can apply for any of the diverse cybersecurity opportunities that MINDEF has to offer, such as the Cyber NSF (Full-time National Service) Scheme which allows enlistees to utilise their cybersecurity skills during their National Service. In addition, youths can apply for the CSIT Undergraduate Scholarship, which is awarded to individuals who are passionate about exploring technologies to advance Singapore’s national security. 41