Singapore’s ST Engineering has announced the establishment of a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (CoE) to accelerate innovation in agentic artificial intelligence (AI), marking a major step in strengthening the region’s cyber resilience and sovereign capability in emerging technologies.
Backed by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), the new CoE underscores Singapore’s continued commitment to building a robust cybersecurity ecosystem that not only serves national interests but also contributes to the wider ASEAN digital landscape.
The CoE will serve as a focal point for developing and operationalising agentic AI systems — autonomous, self-learning algorithms capable of identifying, analysing, and responding to cyber threats in real time.
Starting with a core team of 26 cybersecurity professionals and expanding to more than 80 specialists, the Centre will focus on several strategic domains: AI, 5G, operational technology (OT), Internet of Things (IoT) security, and advanced threat response.
By integrating agentic AI into Security Operations Centres (SOCs), digital forensics, and incident response frameworks, ST Engineering aims to achieve a new level of predictive and adaptive defence, enabling faster detection, autonomous decision-making, and coordinated mitigation of complex cyber incidents.
ST Engineering’s CoE will collaborate with local tertiary institutions, including Republic Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic, to nurture the next generation of cybersecurity professionals skilled in AI-enabled defence technologies.
This partnership-driven model reflects a growing trend across ASEAN, with governments and industry players investing in workforce development and research to reduce the skills gap and promote digital sovereignty.
The CoE’s public-private framework also mirrors Singapore’s broader cybersecurity strategy, which positions innovation as a key enabler of resilience. By linking state agencies, academia, and enterprise capabilities, the initiative establishes a blueprint that other ASEAN nations could adapt to strengthen their own national cyber ecosystems.
The timing of the CoE launch aligns with broader regional efforts to enhance cooperation under the ASEAN Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy 2021–2025, which promotes knowledge exchange and joint exercises among member states.
With agentic AI poised to reshape the future of cybersecurity, Singapore’s leadership through the CoE will likely serve as a testbed for scalable, interoperable solutions that can benefit the wider ASEAN region.
For nations such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam, which are expanding their national cyber frameworks, the CoE’s research and pilot programs could pave the way for collaborative deployments, regional threat intelligence sharing, and joint capacity-building.
The emergence of agentic AI represents more than a technological milestone; it signals a paradigm shift in how cybersecurity is conceived and implemented. Traditional, rule-based systems are giving way to adaptive networks that can act autonomously and intelligently, learning from every incident to strengthen defences.
For ASEAN, where digital transformation is accelerating across critical sectors such as finance, energy, and smart cities, these innovations will be key to safeguarding the region’s digital infrastructure and sustaining trust in its growing digital economy.
As Singapore continues to invest in frontier technologies, the ST Engineering Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence stands as a cornerstone of Southeast Asia’s evolving cyber landscape, bridging research, policy, and operational practice to build a safer, smarter, and more connected future.
