Off duty, her TikTok feed is a familiar mix of funny memes, new eats around Singapore and Swiftie reels. Once she dons her uniform, she flips the feed and combs the open web to draw insights that matter to national security.
This is routine for Military Expert 4 (ME4) Megan Wong, who serves as a senior military intelligence expert in the Open-Source Intelligence eXploitation Group (OSIX) under the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS).
She reviews online material, makes sense of the noise to identify risks, and then uses her judgment to decide what warrants escalation and response.
Having grown up as a digital media native, she better understands the digital space, and can help superiors decide what to watch for and, more importantly, where to look.
Her work shows that today’s threats blur borders and identities. “Now, the changing landscape is no longer about conventional kinetic weapons. Modern warfare is about the digital space too,” she points out.
As information online can be used to manipulate narratives, she says that digital threats are not “a single, clear-cut” issue.
For the same reason, her team members come from varied backgrounds – from aerospace to physiotherapy.
“The beauty of this is to prevent groupthink. We want people from various fields so that we can examine the same issue from different perspectives. There is no one single field of study that’s perfect for intelligence,” says ME4 Wong, who studied politics at the University of Edinburgh on the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Merit Scholarship.
To stay relevant and up to date, ME4 Wong attends external courses that keep her digging beyond the surface into the deeper channels of technology.
Says ME4 Wong: “If there are high-key events like summits, we pay attention to what is online and trending.”
OSIX, under DIS – a branch of the SAF – collects and analyses publicly available information to monitor terrorism threats and regional developments, which is necessary to support SAF planning and operations. The DIS was established in October 2022.
“Everyone now has a phone, and people do share photos and videos of, for instance, the immediate aftermath of natural disasters,” she says. “Publicly available online videos allow us to see the situation in greater detail than if we were to see a single photo or a text.”
ME4 Wong now works closely with other personnel from different vocations under the DIS, such as the Command, Control, Communications, Computers Experts (C4X), and has picked up technical terms and the basics of cloud computing models like Software as a Service.
This fluency matters. The C4Xs create the systems that help her team increase work efficiency, while military intelligence experts like ME4 Wong translate operational needs into technical terms.
“If there are high-key events like summits, we pay attention to what is online and trending.”
– ME4 Megan Wong, recipient of the SAF Merit Scholarship
“Most of the conversations are about what goes on in the background, which can affect the timeliness of our receiving pertinent information,” she says. “Understanding the tech terms and context helps us better grasp the tech limitations and trade-offs, so we can find a middle ground.”
She credits progressive training for making that dialogue possible. “Trainers were there for me, and the SAF senior leadership were always keen and happy to share their experiences with us through informal chats,” says ME4 Wong.
It was not only on-the-job training that stretched her. The SAF Merit Scholarship also widened her world view and boosted her self-confidence. “The SAF really puts a lot of emphasis on developing you,” she adds.
During her four-year course in Scotland, she returned each year to intern with various SAF units, where she connected with officers across services and saw how they operated on the ground. She also participated in sharing sessions with fellow scholars and senior leaders.
“I didn’t fully recognise the weight and significance of the scholarship until I was exposed to higher-level strategic thinking and interactions with my peers, which compelled me to take life more seriously and strive to become a better version of myself,” she says.
It has also sharpened her sense of duty. She adds: “We are comfortable and confident knowing what we do keeps the public and our families safe. We say that we have done a great job when life carries on as usual.”
| About MINDEF/SAF Scholarships The mission of MINDEF and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is to enhance Singapore’s peace and security through deterrence and diplomacy, and should these fail, to secure a swift and decisive victory over the aggressor. MINDEF/SAF continually seeks talent who are willing to take up the challenge of defending our nation. Taking up a MINDEF/SAF scholarship is a lifelong mission to contribute to the peace and security of Singapore. Answer the higher calling. Defend what matters. |
This article is brought to you by the Ministry of Defence.
