Singapore injects $10m to beef up ASEAN members' cybersecurity capacities

Check out where the money is specifically intended for.

Minister for Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim announced today that Singapore is launching S$10m cyber capacity programme to ramp up cybersecurity capabilities across members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN).

The minister made the announcement during ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity held at Shangri-la Hotel.

The money will pay for resources, expertise and training programmes in each member country. It will also provide the resources to broaden the scope of capacity building activities and better hone technical skills and incident response. It will also support discussion and consultancy work in areas such as the formation of national cybersecurity agencies, formulating cybersecurity strategies, and even legislation.

"Countries today face a full spectrum of cyber threats – cybercrime, attacks, espionage and other malicious activities. We in ASEAN have not been immune to this. A joint Singtel-FireEye study found that Southeast Asian governments are more likely to be the target of a cyber attack than other organisations in the region, and advanced persistent threats (APT) remain one of our biggest threats," said the minister.