CSA Launches Cybersecurity Industry Call For Innovation 2022

11 projects awarded for CyberCall 2021; cybersecurity companies encouraged to innovate and address seven cybersecurity challenges for CyberCall 2022

The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), together with partners, National University of Singapore (NUS) Enterprise and TNB Ventures, launched the Cybersecurity Industry Call for Innovation 2022 (CyberCall 2022) today. Cybersecurity companies are invited to participate in the CyberCall to develop innovative solutions to address specific cybersecurity challenges. Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information and Health, announced the launch of CyberCall 2022 at the Cybersecurity Innovation Day 2022 held today, 31 August 2022, at the Raffles City Convention Centre.

2      The CyberCall initiative, first launched in 2018, seeks to catalyse the development of innovative cybersecurity solutions. Through this, CSA aims to strengthen organisations’ cyber resilience and at the same time provide opportunities for cybersecurity companies to catalyse cutting-edge solutions in Singapore for commercial adoption.

CyberCall 2022

3      This year’s CyberCall is looking for solutions in the following areas:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Cybersecurity
• Cloud Security
• Operational Technology (OT) / Internet of Things (IoT) Security
• Privacy-enhancing Technologies

4      CSA has put together a list of challenge statements provided by six end-users – Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), Mediacorp, PacificLight Power, SMRT Corporation and SP Group –, which are looking for solutions to address cybersecurity concerns in their sectors. They submitted a total of seven challenge statements, which fall into four broad categories:

• “AI for Cybersecurity” to reduce the time it takes for end-users to make important decisions and address risks by offering customised risk analysis;
• “Cloud Security” to provide a suite of security measures designed to protect cloud-based infrastructure, applications and data;
• “Operational Technology (OT)/Internet of Things (IoT) Security” to defend OT systems and IoT devices against potential cyber threats; and 
• “Privacy-enhancing Technologies” to protect the privacy of end-users’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) provided to and handled by service providers or applications.

Please refer to Annex A for quotes from selected end-users.

5      The submission period for CyberCall 2022 will close on 30 November 2022. Cybersecurity companies’ proposals that are shortlisted will be invited to discuss their proposals in greater depth with the participating end-users for potential co-innovation, adoption and test bedding. The proposed solutions should be ready for testing and deployment within a 24-month timeframe and should be of Level 6 and above in terms of the Technology Readiness Level¹ Submissions of innovative ideas that address cybersecurity concerns in other sectors like manufacturing, maritime, healthcare etc from the industry are also welcomed.

6       Each selected solution that fulfils the eligibility criteria will be awarded funding of up to S$1,000,000 under CSA’s Cybersecurity Co-Innovation and Development Fund (CCDF).

CyberCall 2021

7      Last year’s CyberCall 2021 with 13 challenge statements received proposals from more than 70 local and international companies. Eleven proposals were selected from a competitive process involving reviews from end-users, a technical review panel as well as an inter-division CSA panel. The awardees were announced at the Cybersecurity Innovation Day event. Please refer to Annex B for list of awardees.

8      More information on CyberCall 2022 and challenge statements can be found at https://CyberCall.sg.

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¹ Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are a type of measurement system used to assess the maturity level of a particular technology. Each technology project is evaluated against the parameters for each technology level and is then assigned a TRL rating based on the projects progress. There are nine technology readiness levels. TRL 1 is the lowest and TRL 9 is the highest. (Source: NASA)

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.