Chapter 3 Upping the Game on Singapore’s Cybersecurity Pillar Three: Featured Topic Dr Janil Puthucheary (Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Communications and Information and SMS-inCharge of Cybersecurity) delivering opening remarks at the launch of the 2019 Call for Innovation. Source: MCI. Developing a Vibrant Cybersecurity Ecosystem Cybersecurity is both a security imperative and an economic opportunity. With advanced infrastructure and a tech-savvy workforce, Singapore is well-poised to develop a vibrant cybersecurity ecosystem comprising highly skilled professionals, companies with deep cybersecurity capabilities and strong translational research and development (R&D) efforts. This ecosystem will ensure a sustainable and skilled workforce and drive industry innovation and advanced research to support Singapore’s plans for a resilient national infrastructure and a safer cyberspace. This chapter “The Singapore cybersecurity landscape suffers from a crucial shortage of people. We need to groom talent from an early stage if Singapore wants to excel in the space. Students need to see cybersecurity as an attractive option that can help them build exciting skills and offer them a richly rewarding career.” details initiatives by CSA and its partners in 2019. Enhancing the Cybersecurity Workforce and Encouraging Industry Innovation in Singapore In partnership with the industry, academia and partner agencies, CSA continues to drive and support initiatives to grow Singapore’s cybersecurity workforce, encourage industry innovation to serve and grow local and international markets and strengthen research capabilities. Noteworthy efforts in 2019 included: Ms Tammie Tham CEO of Ensign InfoSecurity Launching the 2019 Cybersecurity Industry Call for Innovation, which featured 14 challenge statements from 10 end-users including CSA and key stakeholders in the Energy, Healthcare and Maritime sectors. The Call attracted more than 80 proposals from cybersecurity companies eager to work with participating end-users to develop cutting-edge innovative cybersecurity solutions. Expanding the annual Cybersecurity Awards39 to include the “End-user Award” category and the “Regional Award” category for non-profit organisations. The Cybersecurity Awards recognises significant contributions by individuals and organisations to the local and regional cybersecurity ecosystems. Launching SG Cyber Youth, a national programme designed to attract and guide youths in their cybersecurity education and career choices.42 As part of this, the Youth Cyber Exploration Programme (YCEP) expanded in 2019 to host 400 secondary students for four-day boot-camps. Top student participants were invited back for the inaugural YCEP Central Capture-the-Flag Competition. Setting up the National Integrated Centre for Evaluation (NICE) in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to facilitate the testing and evaluation of products, conducting of training, and advanced research for security evaluation techniques.40 Organising the inaugural Cybersecurity Innovation Day41 to showcase solutions by local cybersecurity companies and providing a platform for them to interact with potential end-users, collaborators and investors. Growing research efforts under the three National Satellites of Excellence (NSoEs)43, as part of CSA’s collaborative efforts with the research ecosystem on R&D and translational efforts to deepen technological capabilities. Grants totalling S$15 million were awarded to 21 projects spanning various research themes in software security, mobile application security and cyber-physical systems security. 42 39 40 41 38 The Cybersecurity Awards is organised by the Association of Information Security Professionals (AiSP), and supported by CSA and eight other professional and industry bodies. The collaboration between NICE and NTU harnesses the strength of NTU’s research competencies in hardware security assurance, and aims to reap synergy by optimising the utilisation of resources through the sharing of high-end equipment and pooling of industrial and research expertise. More than 450 cybersecurity stakeholders, including start-ups, industry, Government, academia and key end-users, attended the Cybersecurity Innovation Day in August 2019. SINGAPORE CYBER LANDSCAPE 2019 43 44 Updates on Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem @ Block71 Supported by CSA and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at Block71 (ICE71)44 is the region’s first cybersecurity entrepreneurship hub. It seeks to create a vibrant and sustainable innovation ecosystem by providing access to funding, goto-market support, and mentorship support for the cybersecurity innovation community. In just over a year, the ICE71 programmes have benefited 66 individuals (ICE71 Inspire), and 55 start-ups (ICE71 Accelerate and Scale), with more than 4,000 individuals participating in over 40 corporate and investor sessions organised by ICE71. These efforts have resulted in four ICE71 Accelerate startups raising over S$4.5 million in follow-on funding as of end-2019. ICE71 has also received interest from the international community, hosting delegations from countries including Australia, France, UK as well as the Netherlands. The SG Cyber Youth Programme is led by CSA, in collaboration with partners from the cybersecurity industry and academia. There are plans for the programme to reach out to 10,000 youths over the next three years through training boot-camps, learning journeys and career mentoring sessions. Anchored in local universities, the NSoEs were established to build and consolidate local research strengths in domains of national interest including Trustworthy Software Systems, Mobile Systems Security & Cloud Security, and Design Science and Technologies for Secure Critical Infrastructure. The three key programmes of ICE71 include ICE71 Inspire, ICE71 Accelerate, and ICE71 Scale. 39