The NEC joined the Asia-Pacific Cyber and Information Resilience Elections Network (CIREN) that was held in Singapore on 24-26 September, 2024, upon the invitation by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). 

The IFES launched CIREN in Asia-Pacific to unite key technology industry partners, election management bodies, and cybersecurity and information integrity stakeholders as the capacity to conduct sophisticated cyber and disinformation attacks on elections is increasing at an alarming rate globally. The network aimed to help the participating organizations to develop technical capabilities, engage in meaningful information and threat intelligence exchange with technology partners, and build resiliency in the face eof technology challenges. 

The launch event was held at Google's campus and attended by not only regional election management bodies but also technology industry partners such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. 

On September 25, the participants of the CIREN event had the opportunity to discuss topics such as the challenges that the Asian-pacific environment is faced with, the current status of cybersecurity and resilience of election management bodies, preemptive technology risk management, AI in elections, and electoral integrity, etc.. 

The National Election Commission has been continuously building cooperative relationship with the organization of IFES. It is with IFES when it comes to securing elections against cyberattacks and information manipulation and realizing the positive democratic potential of technology.

Thanks to the CIREN event hosted by IFES, the NEC was able to exchange knowledge and expertise about cybersecurity and information resilience with other election management bodies and thecnology industry partners.