Singapore Strengthens National Cyber Defence Through Enhanced Cybersecurity Command Centre

1. [Singapore, 13 October 2026] Singapore is strengthening its national cyber defence capabilities through enhancements to the National Cybersecurity Command Centre (NC3). The enhanced NC3 will enable the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) to better anticipate and detect sophisticated cyber threats, strengthen the protection of Critical Information Infrastructure (CII), and coordinate responses to major cyber incidents. Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security, and Minister for Home Affairs Mr K Shanmugam unveiled details on the NC3 at the Opening Ceremony of the Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW) 2026 today.   

2. Globally and in Singapore, cyber-attacks are becoming more frequent and advanced. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to strike faster and at greater scale, to exploit weaknesses in software and supply chains. Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors are increasingly targeting CII — the systems that keep essential services like power, transport, and banking & financial services running. The intensified threat landscape underpins the need for a command centre with enhanced national capabilities to detect cyber risks earlier and accelerate operational responses. 

3. The importance of coordinated national cyber defence was demonstrated during Operation CYBER GUARDIAN, Singapore’s largest coordinated cyber incident response effort to date. Announced in February 2026, the operation brought together more than 100 cyber defenders from government agencies, working in partnership with telecommunications operators, to respond to a sophisticated cyber campaign by APT actor UNC3886 targeting Singapore’s telecommunications sector.  

4. Under the Singapore Cybersecurity Strategy 2026, the government is strengthening national-level cyber defence capabilities to complement the efforts of individual CII owners. The NC3 is central to this approach, bringing together cyber defenders, advanced technologies and threat intelligence to provide a more comprehensive picture of cyber threats facing Singapore and enable more timely, coordinated action.

5. As CSA’s operations hub for national cyber defence, the NC3 is being enhanced in five key ways: 

   1. Establish better visibility of the national cyber situational picture. NC3 will allow cyber defenders to fuse threat intelligence from various sources to form a more holistic national cyber situational picture. This will help CSA better anticipate cyber threats and facilitate national coordination of cyber operations. 

   2. Enhance protection at the national level. NC3 will operate a national Protective Domain Name Service that blocks access to known malicious domains such as phishing and malware websites, thus reducing the risk of compromise. This is effected under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA), which provides the legal framework for such actions. Safeguards¹ are in place to ensure the responsible exercise of OCHA powers. 

   3. Enable continuous validation and remediation. NC3 will enable cyber defenders to identify potential entry points for threat actors and remediate them earlier. Attack surface management will provide visibility of CII owners’ Internet-facing systems, allowing CSA to identify exposed assets and work with relevant government agencies and CII owners to ensure that these are remediated. CSA will also conduct vulnerability management through the NC3. CSA will help CII owners identify CII systems which may be affected by new, severe, or actively exploited vulnerabilities. This will help CII owners prioritise the most urgent risks for immediate remediation. 

   4. Strengthen threat detection. NC3 will strengthen the ability of CII owners to detect malicious activities, especially those of APT actors through privileged threat intelligence. CSA and the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT) are progressively equipping selected CII owners with proprietary threat detection systems developed by CSIT and integrating these systems with the NC3. 

   5. Achieve faster, coordinated incident response. When major cyber incidents happen, NC3 will enable timelier incident response and coordination across multiple stakeholders including CII owners and government agencies. AI-enabled systems will help cyber defenders track ongoing incidents, develop operational assessments, and plan next actions. 

 
Building a safer cyberspace for Singapore

6. NC3’s enhanced capabilities will bolster Singapore’s ability to anticipate and prevent cyber threats, detect and contain intrusions earlier, and mount a swift, coordinated national response when major incidents occur. These capabilities, along with new ones, will continue to be developed and strengthened over time. This advances Singapore’s vision under the Singapore Cybersecurity Strategy 2026 – of a secure, trusted, and resilient cyberspace that empowers our digital way of life.