The Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) is the digital

service branch Military branch (also service branch or armed service) is according to common standard a subdivision of the national armed forces of a sovereign nation or state. Types of branches Unified armed forces The Canadian Armed Forces is the unifi ...

of the

Singapore Armed Forces The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are the military services of the Republic of Singapore, responsible for protecting and defending the security interests and the sovereignty of the country. A military component of the Ministry of Defence (MIND ...

(SAF) responsible in providing

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

to the armed forces, building up the country's digital defence, and protecting the psychological defence of its military personnel. It was established on 28 October 2022, in response to the increased number of attacks by

non-state actor A non-state actor (NSA) are organizations and/or individuals that are not affiliated with, directed by, or funded by any government. The interests, structure, and influence of NSAs vary widely. For example, among NSAs are non-profit organizations, ...

s, and resulting damage from the

Russian–Ukrainian cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is a component of the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. While the first attacks on information systems of private enterprises and state institutions of Ukraine were recorded duri ...

History

DIS was first announced on 2 March 2022 by Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen during the Budget 2022 debate. In his speech, Ng highlighted the increase in attacks by

non-state actors A non-state actor (NSA) are organizations and/or individuals that are not affiliated with, directed by, or funded by any government. The interests, structure, and influence of NSAs vary widely. For example, among NSAs are non-profit organizations, ...

and resulting damage from the

to justify the necessity of a dedicated service branch to deal with

hybrid warfare Hybrid warfare is a theory of military strategy, first proposed by Frank Hoffman, which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare, and cyberwarfare with other influencing methods, such as fake news, diplomacy, ...

. The DIS was compared with its closest existing equivalent abroad, Germany's Cyber and Information Domain Service by ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

''. The DIS will comprise several groups within the

(SAF) previously established to deal with such threats, which are the

C4I Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...

Community created in April 2012, Defence Cyber Organisation in March 2017, SAF C4 Command in November 2017, and the Cybersecurity Task Force in December 2020. The DIS will consolidate these organisations under one service branch dedicated to psychological defence, tackling digital domain threats, cybersecurity and

. It was projected to be formally established at the end of 2022. On 2 August 2022,

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

amended the Singapore Armed Forces Act and

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

, formally placing the DIS under the SAF and granting the Chief of Digital and Intelligence Service (CDI) legal powers. The DIS was formally inaugurated on 28 October 2022 at the SAFTI Military Institute. The state colours was presented by President

Halimah Yacob Halimah Yacob (Jawi script: ; born 23 August 1954) is a Singaporean politician and former lawyer who has been serving as the eighth president of Singapore since 2017. Prior to her presidency, she was the country's Speaker of the Parliament of S ...

and the first Chief of Digital and Intelligence Service, Brigadier-General Lee Yi-Jin, was sworn into command.

Structure

The DIS is made up of the Digital Ops-Tech Centre and 4 commands: the Joint Intelligence Command, SAF C4 Command/Cybersecurity Task Force, Digital Defence Command and DIS Training Command. The DIS Training Command will be inaugurated in 2023.

Joint Intelligence Command

The Joint Intelligence Command delivers intelligence support for the SAF. It is the amalgamation of the Imagery Support Group (ISG) and Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Group (CTIG).

SAF C4 Command/Cybersecurity Task Force

The SAF C4 Command/Cybersecurity Task Force secures and handles the SAF's Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) capabilities. It is the amalgamation of the C4 Operations Group (C4OG) and Cyber Defence Group (CDG).

Digital Defence Command

The Digital Defence Command consists of the Electronic Protection Group (EPG) and Psychological Defence Group (PDG), which assists the SAF in electronic protection and psychological defence respectively.

DIS Training Command

The DIS Training Command facilitates the training of DIS personnel. The command will be established in 2023.

Digital Ops-Tech Centre

The Digital Ops-Tech Centre is the heart of the SAF's digital expertise. It partners with various governmental agencies, academic institutes and industry specialist to develop on the DIS' digital domain.

Background

Personnel

The SAF plans to encourage male members of Cyber Youth Singapore to join the DIS, and is working with Nanyang Technological University to create an education scheme to train digital specialists. The service length of DIS personnel will be four years, which is twice the length of

national service in Singapore National Service (NS) is the national policy in Singapore mandated by statutory law that requires all male Singaporean citizens and second-generation permanent residents to serve a period of compulsory service in the uniformed services. It was ...

. In addition, DIS will also recruit personnel specialising in data science, psychology, linguistics, anthropology and geography. Full-time national servicemen will also be enlisted into the DIS.

Uniforms

The No. 1 ceremonial uniform of the DIS comprises a white top, grey pants and a grey beret.

List of chiefs of Digital and Intelligence Service

References

{{Singapore Armed Forces 2022 establishments in Singapore Military units and formations established in 2022