Background 

To develop a highly skilled cyber workforce, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) focused its efforts to attract and develop both military and non-uniformed cybersecurity professionals to take up varying roles within MINDEF/SAF cyber entities. These professionals will be recruited into the SAF Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) Expert (C4X) vocation under the SAF Military Domain Experts Scheme (MDES)[1] and the Defence Cyber Expert (DCX) job specialisation under the Defence Executive Officer (DXO)[2] scheme. MINDEF/SAF aims to recruit about 300 personnel under these new cyber expert schemes.

Job Areas 

C4X and DCX personnel will be deployed to defend MINDEF/SAF systems and networks. They will perform specialised operational roles in areas such as cyber incident response, network monitoring, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing[3]. Besides operational roles, they can also be deployed to staff appointments like operations planning, cyber policy formulation and long-term capability development to meet new challenges and opportunities presented by the evolving cyber environment. C4X personnel will specialise in military cyber operations and have deep understanding of military systems and networks.

Training & Development

DCX and C4X personnel will be trained in technical skills such as threat hunting, malware forensics, cryptography, network security and cyber analytics, depending on the operational roles they are performing. They will be upskilled via in-house training as well as industry-recognised professional courses. As uniformed personnel, C4X personnel will also go through various military courses to attain leadership skills and military knowledge, which will enable them to operate with other military counterparts in the SAF as an integrated force.

Requirements

Interested candidates who have IT and computing-related academic qualifications, relevant cyber experience, passion in cybersecurity, strong analytical abilities, certifications in the cybersecurity field, as well as those with demonstrated cyber skills may apply. 

Conclusion

The C4X vocation and DCX job specialisation, in conjunction with the national cyber NSF (Full-time National Servicemen) scheme, will bolster MINDEF/SAF's efforts to develop a world-class cyber workforce that is highly skilled and able to strengthen Singapore's cybersecurity eco-system. 

[1] MDES is a uniformed military scheme, anchored on professional and technical expertise development, to build strategic deep specialisation capabilities in selected military domains to maintain SAF's operational edge.

[2] DXO Scheme is a non-uniformed scheme to complement their military counterparts by providing expertise and specialised skills in areas such as HR, finance, defence policy, legal, psychology and corporate administration.

[3] Penetration testing is an approach to discover security weaknesses in an organisation's IT infrastructure and applications, which can demonstrate the impact of security vulnerabilities in a real cyber attack.