Cybersecurity is a team sport, says GovTech’s CE at STACKx Cybersecurity debut

Today’s cybersecurity landscape is complex, often split into two teams.

On one end - a team of attackers looking to exploit vulnerabilities in the security systems of target individuals or organisations. 

On the opposing lineup, however, is anyone and everyone who stand together against this nefarious intent. 

Across desks, departments, buildings, and borders, Chief Executive of GovTech Singapore, Goh Wei Boon, called on attendants of STACKx Cybersecurity 2025 to unite in this cause in his opening address of the conference.  
 
"It takes more than collaborations within teams, requiring strong partnerships between organisations and industry to adopt the right elements and solutions to learn from each other,” he said. 
 

The conference on April 15 brought together experts from both the public and private sectors to discuss the latest trends and innovations in cybersecurity that are shaping the digital landscape.

“That is what today is about. Putting together different perspectives to better understand the threat landscape, cross-coordinate, share ideas and explore how we can collectively protect our assets. 

“It’s a two-way partnership. We (public sector) provide context, feedback, gaps, and they (private sector) bring new solutions to help plug the gaps. So, this is why we say cybersecurity is a team sport,” said Goh. 

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Teamwork against cyber threats 

Record Future’s Chief of Staff Jonathan Luff brought attendants through the cyber threat landscape of 2025 and beyond, commencing a series of keynotes over the morning session. 

Expounding on the conference theme, Securing Tomorrow’s Digital Frontier, Luff discussed the increasing volatility of the cyberspace, highlighting the destabilising impact of AI-powered threat actors, emerging powers, and geopolitical conflicts on global cybersecurity. 

An internal risk assessment from Recorded Future identified 24 threat actor groups detected in the East Asian region over the past two years - impacting about 2,200 unique victims across 16,000 incidents. 

Luff concluded his keynote placing emphasis on the value of intelligence and resilience to combat against todays and tomorrow’s threats. 
 
The sharing dovetailed into INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Director, Dr Neal Jetton's keynote on its collaborative approach to combatting global cybercrime threats. 
 
As an international organisation that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control, Dr Jetton emphasised the financial losses from cybercrime at an estimated US$9-10.5 trillion this year alone, further predicting a 142 per cent increase over the next two years. 
 
He highlighted such dangers, from ransomware affiliates to initial access brokers, reminding attendants of the constant risk if harmful agents were to target critical infrastructure like water, electricity, and transportation.   
 
With this in mind, Dr Jetton introduced ‘Project Symphony’, a multi-stakeholder approach to cybersecurity involving law enforcement, cybersecurity agencies, and private sector partners to network and provide best practices. 

Sovereignty to security leadership

Amidst the backdrop of geopolitical conflicts, insecurity was another core theme that emerged among the keynotes in the morning. 
 
Luukas Ilves, Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, made the case for digital sovereignty among nations as well as the dilemmas often faced in this regard. 
 
Drawing lessons of digital resilience from Estonia's 2007 cyber attacks and the 2022 Ukraine-Russian war, the former Government Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, addressed the complexities of digital sovereignty and dependencies on global trade - highlighting the shift towards open, multinational tech stacks to navigate the evolving technological landscape. 

Deputy Commissioner of Cybersecurity & Deputy Chief Executive (Development) for the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), Chua Kuan Seah, also addressed the intricacies of global relationships in the cyber landscape. 
 
As a land-scarce nation reliant on human capital, he highlighted the need for Singapore to invest in regional and global partnerships to stay ahead in this fast-evolving field of cybersecurity. 

The morning sessions at STACKx Cybersecurity 2025 rounded off with a panel discussion centred on the key priorities, emerging concerns, and strategic approaches to build security resilience amid persistent uncertainty. 

 
Justiin Ang, the Singapore Government’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Assistant Chief Executive (Cybersecurity) at GovTech and Assistant Chief Executive (Development) at the CSA moderated the panel featuring Ilves; Jerome Walter, Field CTO APJ of HashiCorp; Daryl Pereira, APAC Head of Office of the CISO at Google Cloud; Ann Johnson, Corporate VP & Deputy CISO, Customer Security Management Office of Microsoft; and Chua Ai Qi, Director (Cyber Security) at the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies. 

The programme resumed in the afternoon with three parallel breakout tracks, each doing a deep dive of presentations and panels on three key areas: AI, cloud security and cybersecurity leadership. 

Attending track two’s Resilient and Secure Cloud topic, Andre Thong’s biggest takeaway was the deep insights into building and maintaining secure cloud-native environments. 

Thong was the winner of the GovInsider’s lucky draw in collaboration with GovTech where the cybersecurity engineer in the private sector won a free pass to the conference’s day of networking and insights. 
 
He said that the presentation on comprehensive risk-based security framework gave him practical and actionable insights to securing cloud environments with automation. 
 
“I am glad to have the opportunity to network and exchange ideas with peers and thought leaders to further enhance my ability to anticipate and defend against rapidly evolving threats,” he said.