CHAPTER 3
SINGAPORE’S CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY – DEVELOPMENTS IN 2018
PILLAR ONE:
BUILDING A RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE
FEATURED TOPIC
Participants
from the
maritime sector
being briefed
at the opening
address for
Exercise
CyberArk
in July 2018.
Source: CSA.
MEASURING MATURITY OF CII SECTORS
CONDUCTING CYBERSECURITY EXERCISES FOR CII SECTORS
As part of efforts to build a resilient
infrastructure, CSA launched its CII
Protection Programme. Under the
programme, the Readiness Maturity
Index (RMI) Framework evaluates the
cybersecurity maturity of CII sectors
delivering essential services, and
allows Sector Leads to build cyber
capabilities and resilience against
evolving cyber threats.
Since its formation, CSA
has been conducting
sector-specific Exercise
CyberArk (XCA) to ensure
readiness of all CII sectors
in defending against
increasingly sophisticated
cyber-threats. In 2018,
over 300 participants
from the Media, Aviation,
and Maritime sectors took
part in XCA on separate
occasions to review,
exercise and validate
their cyber defence
capabilities and incident
response plans. The
4-month planning and
development cycle for
each run of the exercise
culminated in a 2-day
Table-Top Exercise (TTX),
where participants were
The maturity of a CII sector is measured
based on respective CII owners’
attributes in the RMI Framework. As of
2018, all 11 CII sectors have attained a
maturity level of “measurable”, which
means that they have demonstrated
governance, management oversight,
formalised policies, assigned
responsibilities, and training of people,
with consistent and measurable
outcomes. CSA will continue to
develop appropriate cybersecurity
metrics beyond the RMI framework.
put through a series of
scenarios that gradually
built up towards a cybercrisis. Simulated media
conferences were then
conducted to validate
the sectors’ crisis
communication processes.
Besides the sector-specific
XCA, CSA also conducts
a national-level, multisectoral exercise –
Exercise Cyber Star (XCS) –
to validate the National
Cyber Crisis Management
System. Two runs of XCS
have been conducted to
date, with the third one
planned for 2019.
CYBERSECURITY ACT: THE JOURNEY
The Cybersecurity Bill was passed in Parliament on 5 February 2018 and came into
force on 31 August 2018. Extensive public consultations were carried out by CSA and
the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) in the drafting of the Act. This
included closed-door consultations with key stakeholders, ranging from Government
agencies, potential CII owners, industry associations and cybersecurity professionals, as
well as an open public consultation from 10 July to 24 August 2017.
The Cybersecurity Act establishes a legal framework for the oversight and maintenance
of national cybersecurity in Singapore. Its four key objectives are to:
Strengthen the
protection of CII
against cyber-attacks.
Authorise CSA to
prevent and respond to
cybersecurity threats
and incidents.
Establish a framework
for sharing cybersecurity information.
Establish a light-touch
licensing framework for
cybersecurity service
providers (to come into
force at a later date).
A key feature of the Act is the appointment of a Commissioner of Cybersecurity who
is empowered by the Act to oversee all aspects of cybersecurity in Singapore. The
Commissioner is assisted by Assistant Commissioners of Cybersecurity, appointed from
the respective sectors, who provide the deep domain knowledge and expertise. The
Cybersecurity Act provides the Commissioner and his supporting cybersecurity officers
with an important regulatory instrument and statutory powers with which to strengthen
Singapore’s cybersecurity and combat cyber threats.
PSA remains fully committed towards strengthening the capabilities and
resilience of our people, processes and platforms against cyber threats, to
ensure the continuity of global trade and realising the “Internet of Logistics”.
– Mr Ong Kim Pong, Regional CEO of PSA Southeast Asia,
on contributing to cybersecurity in Singapore’s maritime sector
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