Cybersecurity Workshop “Security Threat Briefing for Research and Education Section” in partnership with Recorded Future – 5 Jul 2024
16 Jul 2024 – More than 20 attendees from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and various Institutes of Higher Learning participated in this joint workshop with Recorded Future on 5 Jul 2024 at WeWork @ 21 Collyer Quay.
SingAREN’s EXCO member, Mr Christopher Lek opened the workshop with a warm welcome and hosted the fireside chat featuring industry experts: Mr Steven Sim, the OT-ISAC EC Chair from ISACA Singapore Chapter, and Dr Scott Flower, the co-founder of CI-ISAC Australia. Informative discussions on challenges and best practices for information sharing within the security community were the main focus of this fireside chat. The participants learned from Mr Sim and Dr Flower as they shared their ISAC’s experience and methods deployed in their intelligence-sharing protocols and the type of cybersecurity services that their ISAC offered to their members.

Figure 1 Fireside chat session with Mr Lek (left), Mr Sim (center) and Dr Flower (right)
Key takeaways that benefited the NREN community are summarized below:
- No organization can defend itself by working in isolation. The key is to build trust and sharing of the incident analysis and distribution of the knowledge with each other within the security community.
- Both experts agreed that the best effective practice for information sharing across the community is the submission of information by anonymity.
- Where cyber attacks are inevitable, maintaining transparency and adopting an open mindset to use the experience to encourage sharing their learnings to build up trust among members.
Recorded Future’s Xavier Tang shared about the current state of security threats impacting Singapore and the NREN. He presented the latest ransomware trends in the NRENs; highlighting the key ransomware players employing unique attack vector behaviours towards targeted victims in the NREN sector. It was interesting to learn how the 2024 outlook for threat predictions included generative AI that impacts the threat landscape.

Figure 2 Recorded Future’s Mr Tang (left) and Ms Ngo (right) presentations
The last speaker, Ms Jenny Ngo from Recorded Future, gave an overview of the briefing of Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud capabilities and diverse portfolio. She had advised the community to exercise unbiased criteria to select the best defence strategy for each organization.

Figure 3 Q and A session
After the talks, everyone gathered to have a sumptuous lunch buffet which provided the opportunity to network further and have valuable discussions.
SingAREN would like to thank Mr Sim, and Dr Flower for providing an insightful perspective on threat intelligence sharing in the ISACs. A big thank you to all those who joined the workshop in person and a special thanks to Recorded Future staff who made all of this possible.