Singaporean commercial cybersecurity R&D receives $16m funding
Singaporean Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat has announced more than $16m in funding to boost Singapore's cybersecurity research and development. The investment will go to nine individual projects, each aiming to bolster national cybersecurity and reinforce critical infrastructure. The funds may also help new developments to reach the market faster. "Should our cybersecurity researchers arrive at new findings, industry leads... will stand ready to develop them into game-changing solutions," said Heng.

More than $16 million will be invested to strengthen Singapore's cyber-security research and development, under two separate programmes that aim to produce more commercial cyber-security solutions.

Speaking at the opening of the second Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (Switch) yesterday, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced the move, and said it would further public- private partnerships in areas of advanced cyber security.

Nine research projects were granted funding of $15.6 million under a grant call by the National Cybersecurity R&D Programme, which was set up in November last year to develop capabilities to meet Singapore's cyber-security needs.

Each project is a collaboration between a cyber-security company and academic researchers, and falls under one of the nation's three key cyber-security priorities: national security, critical infrastructure and Smart Nation.

For example, local cyber-security start-up Attila Cybertech is working with researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design to use machine learning in the software for critical infrastructure in order to detect strange, out-of-the-ordinary behaviour that might indicate a cyber attack.

Such partnerships mean that new research findings can be brought to market faster as there is already a company available to market the research.

"Should our cyber-security researchers arrive at new findings, industry leads... will stand ready to develop them into game-changing solutions," said Mr Heng.