Singapore Moves Ahead to Establish the ASEAN Regional CERT to Strengthen Regional Cybersecurity

1      Singapore, represented by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), has been working closely with ASEAN Member States (AMS) to establish the ASEAN Regional Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to promote and facilitate information-sharing related to cyber incident response, and to complement the operational efforts by individual national CERTs in each AMS.

 2      At the 14th ASEAN Network Security Action Council in August 2023, Singapore had made the recommendation for a single AMS to host the ASEAN Regional CERT and proposed to host and fund its physical activities in Singapore.

3      The ASEAN Regional CERT will enable stronger regional cybersecurity incident response coordination and critical information infrastructure (CII) protection cooperation, including for cross-border CII such as banking and finance, communications, aviation and maritime. Its establishment has been endorsed under the ASEAN Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy (2017-2020).

4      The increasingly sophisticated and fast-evolving nature of transboundary cyber threats would mean that there is also a need for greater capacity building and operational coordination amongst AMS’ national CERTs, Hence, the financial model would also support joint training sessions, cybersecurity exercises and networking of AMS’ National CERTs with INTERPOL, industry and academia, as well as the provision of industry cyber threat feeds to all AMS.       

5      In consultation with AMS, Singapore had tabled an Implementation Paper at the 2nd ASEAN Digital Ministers Meeting (ADGMIN) in January 2022, and the Operational Framework at the 3rd ADGMIN in February 2023. AMS had successfully endorsed these documents to move the initiative ahead. The next step would be the endorsement of a financial model to ensure sustainable funding of the ASEAN Regional CERT at the 4th ADGMIN in 2024.  

6      Following the endorsement of the financial model, Singapore will continue to work closely with AMS to operationalise the ASEAN Regional CERT to enhance collective cybersecurity within the region.

About the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore

Established in 2015, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) seeks to keep Singapore’s cyberspace safe and secure to underpin our Nation Security, power a Digital Economy and protect our Digital Way of Life. It maintains an oversight of national cybersecurity functions and works with sector leads to protect Singapore’s Critical Information Infrastructure. CSA also engages with various stakeholders to heighten cyber security awareness, build a vibrant cybersecurity ecosystem supported by a robust workforce, pursue international partnerships and drive regional cybersecurity capacity building programmes.

CSA is part of the Prime Minister’s Office and is managed by the Ministry of Communications and Information. For more news and information, please visit www.csa.gov.sg.