Cisco and CSA Collaborate to Bolster Cyber Defense for Singapore

SINGAPORE 17 October 2024 – Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking and security, and the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Collaboration which aims to bolster the nation’s national security and digital resilience. Ms. Tay Bee Kheng, President of Cisco ASEAN, and Mr. Dan Yock Hau, Assistant Chief Executive (National Cyber Resilience) of CSA, signed the memorandum at a ceremony on the sidelines of Singapore International Cyber Week 2024.

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, there is a greater need for organizations to enhance their digital resilience to protect themselves from sophisticated cyber threats. In an expanded collaboration with CSA, Cisco brings the full power of the network together with market-leading security and observability. Leveraging Splunk’s security offerings and Cisco Talos’s unmatched visibility of the threat landscape, Cisco aims to offer its expertise and capabilities to contribute to the nation’s cyber and digital resilience.

Building Singapore’s Cyber and Digital Resilience

Sharing Threat Intelligence and Insights: Following the acquisition of Splunk earlier this year, Cisco now has the market-leading capabilities to provide complete visibility and insights across an organization’s entire digital footprint. It will also facilitate the cross-exchange of ideas, insights, and industry best practices with CSA and the wider cybersecurity community. Cisco Talos, among the world’s preeminent threat intelligence detection and response groups, will contribute to this effort. With its unmatched visibility across the threat landscape, seeing more than 800 billion security events per day, Cisco Talos leverages more than 60 government and law enforcement partnerships and extensive product telemetry across identity, firewalls, endpoints, and more to drive digital resilience.

Shoring Up the Country’s Defense Capabilities: As part of Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, Cisco will provide advisory support and join forces with CSA in using the latest technologies and capabilities to drive digital resilience for the country. This includes exploring new translation of cyber defense concept of operations into functional requirements and technical design and technologies for national cybersecurity initiatives.

Enhancing International Cyber Cooperation in ASEAN: On a broader scale beyond Singapore, Cisco and CSA will work together to foster an open and secure cyberspace ecosystem for Singapore and the ASEAN region. They will explore raising the baseline level of ASEAN cybersecurity through an ASEAN Cybersecurity Assessment Model (ACAM) program. Both parties will also explore the feasibility of collaborating with the ASEAN-Singapore Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence to support training and assessment initiatives in neighboring ASEAN countries.

Growing a Robust Cyber Talent Pipeline: To bridge the cybersecurity skills gap, CSA and Cisco will collaborate to develop and sustain a strong cybersecurity workforce by upskilling professionals, supporting mid-career transitions, and grooming future talents. These will be done through various initiatives, from offering tech education under Cisco Networking Academy, one of the world’s longest-running skills-to-jobs programs, in partnership with Institutes of Higher Learning to activities like security operation center training, workshops and Capture-the-Flag competitions.

Ms. Tay Bee Kheng, President of Cisco ASEAN said, “As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, security needs to move at machine scale. Data has become the ultimate differentiator as it enables businesses to correlate telemetry data with business context to help detect and stop issues wherever they occur. We are delighted to bring the power of Cisco Security with Talos, and now Splunk, to this collaboration with CSA to help Singapore remain digitally resilient.”

Mr. Dan Yock Hau, Assistant Chief Executive (National Cyber Resilience), CSA, said, “Cybersecurity is a team effort, and we look forward to expanding our collaboration with Cisco to enhance Singapore’s cyber resilience and its standing as a leading digital hub in the region. Through this partnership, CSA intends to explore new platforms to facilitate the cross-sharing of threat intelligence information as well as spearhead initiatives to boost the talent pipeline for Singapore’s cybersecurity workforce.”