RISING INTEREST IN CYBER DEFENCE

With a 20 percent increase from last year, the 2016 edition of the Cyber Defenders Discovery Camp (CDDC) saw a record 400 students coming together to learn about cyber defence and to compete on 6 Jun for the top honours.

When the results were revealed, the champion team of the University and Polytechnic category Natus Vincere was at a loss for words. "We are happy. Very happy!"

When asked how they were able to clinch the top prize of $8,000 cash, the team was modest. "I think we got lucky."

"It was probably teamwork as well. We were able to split the workload quite efficiently with two people focused on attacking while the other two focused on defending, and the person who was less busy handled the side challenges," said team leader Ang Zhi Yuan.

The Best Defenders and third-placed team from the Junior College and Integrated Programme category, My Little Trojan from River Valley High School agreed and team leader Chen Yi Jia added: "I think that this event was one of a kind as it was an exciting and unique event. We were also quite surprised to find that the training was so specific and applicable to our daily lives."

The 4th CDDC, held at the Singapore University of Technology (SUTD) and Design, spanned over four days, during which students from universities, polytechnics, junior colleges and Integrated Programme schools learnt about cybersecurity from cyber defence professionals from the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA).

At the awards ceremony, Guest of Honour Permanent Secretary (Defence) Chan Yeng Kit commended the inclusion of a new topic - Internet of Things (IOT), which refers to the ability to exchange data among various electronic devices, and spoke about the importance of cyberspace security in his speech.

"The SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) recognises the threat of cyber attacks to its networks and systems and this was one of the key reasons why we established the Cyber Defence Operations Hub in 2013 to step up our cyber defence capabilities."

To counter the growing cyber threats, Mr Chan outlined briefly the steps taken by the Government: "Programmes and initiatives are being set up to attract more talents for the cybersecurity workforce. The National University of Singapore and Singapore Institute of Technology are starting undergraduate degree programmes in Information Security (and) SUTD has plans for a Master's degree in cybersecurity in future."

This year's CDDC was organised by DSTA and supported by the Ministry of Defence.