SINGAPORE – Representatives from critical sectors, such as energy, banking and healthcare, took part in a whole-of-government cyber-security exercise over the week to prepare for attacks targeting key infrastructure that keeps the nation ticking.
The fifth edition of Exercise Cyber Star, organised by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), put more than 450 participants in a race against the clock to respond to and unravel ransomware attacks and malicious attempts to overwhelm a website or server, among other scenarios.
Besides handling the usual suspects such as data leaks and communications network failure, participants also focused on tackling emerging threats against operational technology systems – digital systems that are typically linked to essential physical services such as power and water.
The finale of the four-day exercise on Friday was held at the Ministry of Communications and Information building in City Hall.
It involved teams from 30 public- and private-sector organisations, including those from the Government, infocomm, energy, land transport, healthcare, banking and finance, and media sectors.
Teams from each organisation included technical professionals who scrutinise walls of code to identify attacks and decision-makers who strategise, analyse the impact of attacks and decide how best to inform the public.
CSA, which planned the programme with cyber-security training organisation Sans Institute, said in a statement that this year’s challenges featured a wider range of attack scenarios on critical services to prepare participants for the real deal. It added: “Cyber attacks on industrial operational technology systems in critical sectors such as info-communications, energy and water can have knock-on effects on other sectors for the delivery of essential services that are vital for our economy and society.”
These systems are typically separated – or “air-gapped” – from other networks used by a facility to protect it from threats, but several breaches globally in the past decade have raised the need for better security, CSA said in its annual Cyber Landscape report in June.
It cited international incidents, such as malware attacks on Ukraine’s electrical grid in 2016 that led to a massive power blackout across the country, and near misses to show the threat posed by such attacks.
Meanwhile, ransomware attacks continue to plague Singapore, with 132 cases reported in 2022, CSA reported.
Describing how the exercise was carried out, Mr Man Jun Hoe from the CSA joint operations readiness division said teams would be alerted to new attacks, such as a sudden disruption or ransomware attack.
They were required to promptly isolate and provide a fix for each attack and alert CSA, which in turn would inform other sectors to look out for certain types of threats and ensure a coordinated response.
The exercise serves as a platform for infrastructure providers to work together and share their findings during an attack, said CSA.
Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo, who observed the exercise on Friday, said that as more services are digitalised, the cost of a cyber attack cannot be underestimated and each agency must know how to respond to it.
Mrs Teo, who is also Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, said: “Even with the plans laid out, there is nothing like exercising these plans to know in what ways they work well and where we need to improve.”
She added: “The most valuable outcome is the coordination that you will find between the agencies as the cyber defenders get to exchange notes and familiarise themselves with the operating contexts, which enriches their understanding of threats that they are up against, (even those from other agencies).”
Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Janil Puthucheary also attended the finale on Friday.
