Grooming young talent to counter the threat of cyber crime, that is what the Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority (SITSA) and Temasek Polytechnic aims to achieve with its latest collaboration announced on Tuesday.

The new Advanced Cyber Security Training Facility, to be set up next year, will produce the next generation of cyber security professionals, through a programme that will hone their technical skills with realistic hands-on training.

The initiative, announced on Tuesday by Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli at the GovernmentWare2013 Conference and Exhibition, is part of a concerted effort here to grow a niche pool of local cyber security experts, in light of today's challenging cyber threat landscape.

This year's theme for GovWare, which is organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs, is 'Defining the Next Generation Cyber Defence Strategies'. Now into its 22nd year, the event is a platform where public and private sectors come together, to foster the close collaboration essential to addressing IT security challenges faced by the world today.

In his opening speech, Mr Massagos spoke of the need to grow Singapore's national cyber security capacity because the cyber criminals of today no longer "work in a random and opportunistic manner".

''Perpetrators can inflict major damage with relatively less resources than that needed to protect and defend the systems,'' he said. And in light of today's new vulnerabilities and threats, he urged for cyber defence strategies to shift from a reactive model towards a pro-active, intelligence-based one.