ACICE’s Role in Region Pivotal to Strengthen Collective Response against Transnational Threats in the Cyber and Information Domains: Ng Eng Hen

Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen officially opened the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) Cybersecurity and Information Centre of Excellence (ACICE) today at Changi Command and Control Centre (CC2C), RSS Singapura – Changi Naval Base. ACICE is a centre that connects ASEAN countries and other partners to enhance multilateral cooperation in the defence sectoral against cyberattacks, disinformation and misinformation through information sharing and capacity building.

Speaking at the official opening, Dr Ng highlighted that the establishment of ACICE underscored Singapore’s recognition of the evolving security landscape, and stressed that “ACICE must aim to provide good situational awareness and early warning on threats in the digital domain”. Dr Ng said that one of the goals for ACICE is to be “an information sharing and capacity building hub” and added that ACICE can contribute to discussions “to forge a consensus on the ‘rules of the road’ that should govern the digital domain”.

Dr Ng also introduced the Experts Panel assembled by ACICE, comprising renowned academics and industry experts who will advise ACICE on emerging global trends and developments in the cybersecurity and information domains.

Several events were organised on the sidelines of the official opening of ACICE, including the inaugural Digital Defence Symposium, the ACICE Experts Panel meeting, and the ASEAN Roundtable on Digital Defence for officials from ASEAN member states (AMS), all of which took place yesterday, as well as the 2nd ACICE Advisory Board meeting that took place earlier today. These events provided the platform for AMS to share perspectives, discuss issues, and explore potential areas of collaboration, and served to build trust and confidence amongst AMS in dealing with cyber and information issues.

Since its operationalisation in September 2021, ACICE has sent out monthly reports to raise awareness of and knowledge on potential threats to regional security, as well as trends and developments related to the cybersecurity and information domains. In February 2023, ACICE launched a Malware Information Sharing Platform (MISP) to facilitate timely sharing of cybersecurity threat information among AMS for early warning, timely response and mitigation of cyberattacks.