Singapore, Aug 27 (IANS): Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority will set up a monitoring and operations control centre to help the government guard against, and respond swiftly, to security threats, the government announced Tuesday.

The announcements come after a spate of cyber attacks on government websites late last year.

Speaking at an information security meeting, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim said the Monitoring and Operations Control Centre will allow authorities to guard against security threats and respond to them in a timely manner, Xinhua reported.

The new centre will complement an existing Cyber-Watch Centre, established in 2007 and will be upgraded by January next year.

The Cyber-Watch Center was established to monitor critical public sector IT installations. By January next year, it will be able to better monitor government websites and check if there are malicious activities, he said.

The government will appoint Chief Information Security Officers to strengthen the infocomm security governance at government agencies.