singapore Bolsters Cyber Defenses with Major Exercise, New 5G Testbed
SINGAPORE – Singapore‘s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) recently concluded its large-scale cyber defense exercise, Cyber integrated Defence Exercise (CIDeX) 2025, aimed at strengthening the nation’s ability too protect critical IT and Operational Technology (OT) networks. Concurrently, the CSA launched the Cyber5G testbed, a new facility designed to advance cybersecurity research and training for the telecommunications sector.
CIDeX 2025 brought together personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the CSA, leveraging “innovations to cyber defence” and deploying “skilled cyber talent and national servicemen,” according to a CSA statement. The exercise focused on providing realistic training to defenders facing “real, complex, and rapidly evolving” cyber threats.
“Large-scale exercises like CIDeX give our defenders the realistic training to hone their craft and stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated cyber threat actors,” said edward Chen, deputy chief executive for National Cyber Resilience at the CSA. “We are appreciative of this strong partnership with the SAF to build Singapore’s collective cyber resilience.”
The exercise benefitted from meaningful private sector collaboration, with contributions from Singtel, AWS, Check Point Software Technologies, Dragos, Fortinet, Google Cloud, and Splunk. These partners provided realistic cyber-attack scenarios and contributed to a six-day training programme designed to enhance participants’ cyber defense competencies.
Complementing CIDeX 2025, the newly established Cyber5G testbed utilizes telco-grade components to facilitate threat modeling and cyber training specifically for the telecommunications industry. The testbed will enable research into real-world attack vectors targeting national infrastructure, supporting the development of robust defensive strategies.
These developments come as global cybersecurity exercises and frameworks gain prominence. Last month, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) held BlueOLEx 2025 in Cyprus, testing executive-level cooperation in responding to large-scale cyber incidents, guided by the recently released EU Cyber Blueprint.
