Singapore is currently dealing with a serious and ongoing cyberattack targeting its critical infrastructure, confirmed the country’s Coordinating Minister for National Security, K. Shanmugam. The threat has been identified as an Advanced Persistent Threat and is linked to UNC3886, which cybersecurity firm Mandiant describes as a “China nexus espionage group”.
Due to the sensitive nature of the attack, the government has not released detailed information. However, Minister Shanmugam has warned that the cyberattack poses a serious risk to essential services such as power, water, finance, telecoms, transport, healthcare and media. He stated that these types of attacks, if successful, “can conduct espionage and cause major disruption to Singapore and Singaporeans”.
In response, Singapore’s military, specifically selected units from the Republic of Singapore Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence, are working closely with the Cyber Security Agency to contain and address the breach.
Reports show a sharp rise in such attacks, with Advanced Persistent Threat incidents increasing more than four times between 2021 and 2024. One of Singapore’s most notable previous incidents was in 2018, when a cyberattack compromised the personal data of around 160000 patients from a public healthcare cluster, including the records of then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
China has denied any involvement in the current cyberattack. In an official statement, it said, “China firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyberattacks in accordance with the law,” while also stating that China itself is frequently targeted by such threats.
Cybersecurity experts have highlighted the increasing difficulty in defending against these kinds of sophisticated intrusions. Satnam Narang, a researcher from Tenable, said that the growing complexity of digital infrastructure makes protection efforts much more challenging.
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