Cyber Youth Singapore (CYS), a non-profit, youth-led programme focused on developing Singapore’s digital future, partnering with a cybersecurity firm, launched the first Cyber Youth Singapore Summit 2021. Themed “Our Future: Youth in Technology”, the summit engaged more than 500 youths from secondary schools to universities.
The summit, organised and managed wholly by youths was conceptualised to bring Singapore’s youth tech community together to ignite and nurture their interest in cybersecurity and the wider tech domains. The youth organisers behind the summit sought to deepen their peers’ understanding and exposure to the industry to enable their generation to play a bigger role in the nation’s cyber defence.
By partnering with a cybersecurity firm, the summit provided real-world expertise and industry insights to the participants. This allowed aspiring cyber talents to acquire practical tips and useful information that can give them a head start when pursuing a career in cybersecurity.
Held in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the summit created a platform that served as a beacon of hope and unity across all youths in Singapore in this time of crisis, rallying all young people together to focus on and solidify Singapore’s digital future.
CYS will remain committed to building a united youth in the tech community, transforming the way the youths explore their interests in cybersecurity and the wider tech domains.
President and CEO of CYS
The summit’s capstone activity was a Virtual Capture-the-Flag Competition with a coveted prize of S$5,000. This cybersecurity competition required participants to apply their skillsets to break into simulated machines. Three different competition tracks were created for different age groups with varying skill levels. Virtual hands-on training modules were provided for youths in the secondary school category.
The summit featured an activity where the cybersecurity firm shared their deep cybersecurity research efforts, and how they develop bespoke solutions and proprietary technologies to tackle advanced cyber threats. The company’s employee also talked about the innovation he helped come up with. He also described what his teammates do.
To encourage unity, bonding and friendship among youths, the summit also featured a “Gaming Day” where participants competed in various gaming sessions. The final competitions for the top teams and the awarding of prizes to the winning teams were streamed live. The summit concluded with the Cyber Youth Day where a suite of career talks, webinars, panel discussions, and project showcases by industry and academic partners, were conducted.
Organisations supporting the CYSummit were also invited to showcase their capabilities through the Virtual Booth Showcase, allowing participants to explore the booths and gain industry knowledge. The participants also had the opportunity to interact with the tech industry professionals through the live chat function.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, As the digital world becomes a larger part of our lives, cyber threats increase in both impact and frequency. The global trend in the cyber landscape is for attacks to be less profit-motivated.
To address this, a Singaporean telecommunications provider is launching a new suite of cybersecurity solutions developed in collaboration with an India-based global IT solutions provider. Cybersecurity consulting, incident response, data protection, vulnerability testing, managed firewall, and managed endpoint are all part of the new suite of solutions
The offering is primarily aimed at Singapore’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the telco claiming that the new suite comes at a time when nearly half of all reported crimes in Singapore are cybercrime-related. Indeed, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) last month flagged an increase in cyber threats, such as ransomware and online scams, during 2020.
