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To equip the workforce with relevant skills, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) formalised six partnerships covering areas like cybersecurity, decarbonisation and talent development. One of these is a collaboration with SUTD’s iTrust centre to launch a maritime cybersecurity course, training seafarers to detect and respond to threats targeting critical shipboard systems.

iTrust will support its partners in advancing maritime cyber resilience, complementing and collectively building research depth and innovation, operational realism from industry deployment and regulatory and classification expertise.

The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) and the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), together with four universities, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen maritime cybersecurity cooperation. The agreement involves the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the University of Hamburg (UHH), and the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH).

The fourth Critical Infrastructure Defence Exercise (CIDeX) at SIT incorporated real cyber-operation intelligence and private-sector collaboration to strengthen readiness against evolving cyber threats. On the sidelines, DIS and SUTD launched Cyber5G, a telco-grade testbed for threat modelling and cyber training in the telecommunications sector.

Singapore’s first maritime network security test platform built by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is expected to be completed next year. By then, this platform will allow maritime operators to simulate various cyber attacks and defense drills, thereby improving the security capabilities of different system softwares.

5Ghoul is a described as “a family of implementation-level 5G vulnerabilities”, or a collection of CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) present in the firmware implementation of 5G mobile network modems from major chipset vendors Qualcomm and MediaTek. NSoE Phase II’s IoT sector lead Assistant Prof Sudipta Chattopadhyay’s team discovered 14 vulnerabilities n the chipsets, of which 12 were new. Of the 10 vulnerabilities that affected 5G modems from Qualcomm and MediaTek, six had a high severity rating. For their discoveries, they were awarded US$36,000 by Qualcomm and MediaTek, and featured in Channel News Asia on 12 Dec 2023. Technical information on 5Ghoul can be accessed at https://5ghoul.com/

Organised by the Digital and Intelligence Service and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, with support from iTrust/SUTD and the National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory, CIDeX 2023 marked a collaborative effort to enhance Whole-Of-Government (WoG) cyber capabilities.

The new CSA-iTrust Master of Science in Security by Design Scholarship Programme was launched at the Operational Technology Cybersecurity Expert Panel Forum 2022.