Opening Address by Minister Josephine Teo at the Singapore International Cyber Week (Day 2)

Distinguished Guests

Colleagues and friends

1. In the last few years, we have all felt the impact of technologies. In particular, AI and quantum technologies are advancing like never before. Opportunities are expanding, but so are risks.

2. We need to learn new ways of managing the risks. But it will take time to develop the right strategies and implement them well. Still, we must try our best to stay ahead, or at least, not fall too far behind.

ACTING AS THE THREAT CHANGES: SCAMS

3. Take scams, for example. It is a scourge that has caused harm to many of our citizens. It is also a fight that has become harder to win because of AI.

4. Earlier this year, a victim in Singapore was invited to a virtual meeting that appeared to involve our Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and other senior officials.

5. The meeting looked real. The faces looked familiar. But they were not. Deepfake AI was used to create their likeness. The victim, a seasoned professional, thought he was being invited to was contribute to a worthy global cause and transferred nearly five million Singapore dollars to the scammers.

6. Scammers have always exploited human trust. What AI changes is the cost of deception. It allows scammers to impersonate people more convincingly, personalise their approaches, and target more victims. Increasingly, the cues that we previously relied on to establish trust can themselves be fabricated.

7. Our response should not be to turn away from AI because scammers misuse it. Instead, we must tune up our defences and make them better.

8. We must detect threats early enough and follow up to disrupt them soon after. Knowing that scammers deploy their tactics across multiple systems, we must coordinate our responses more tightly.

9. A victim may first encounter a scam on social media, move to a messaging platform, receive a phone call, and finally transfer money through a financial institution. Each part of that scam chain presents an opportunity to intervene. But no single defender sees the whole chain and that is the trouble.

10. It is therefore not enough to make every organisation better at stopping scams. We must also connect our defences so that a single signal detected in one part of the ecosystem can trigger action elsewhere.

11. At the same time, we can use AI to detect threats at scale. To do so, the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) jointly developed the Scam Analytics and Tactical Intervention System or SATIS.

    • SATIS uses AI to scan and assess more than 600,000 websites every single day, each in a matter of seconds.

    • It now disrupts around 20,000 malicious websites every month, and has expanded to include mobile numbers and online platforms that are also suspicious.

    • This allows us to find and act on threats at a speed and scale that human effort alone can never match.

12. We can be even more impactful by sharing information. Our police did just that and helped Meta remove or restrict nearly 3.8 million scam-linked entities, pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram. This shows the multiplier effect achievable by connecting our defences.

13. There is also value in connecting our defences across borders, to fight scammers exploiting vulnerabilities in different countries. This is why Singapore initiated the ASEAN Guide on Anti-Scam Policies and Best Practices which Member States endorsed earlier this year.

14. We are working to push these defences further. GovTech is collaborating with Google DeepMind to develop real-time AI detection of scams on our devices.

    • If our devices can recognise signs of manipulation early, we can help potential victims avoid financial or credential loss, while keeping their personal messages on their devices.

    • In other words, we can provide stronger protection while preserving privacy.

ACTING BEFORE THE THREAT ARRIVES: QUANTUM TRANSITION

15. Besides scams, we should also place close attention to quantum-related risks.

16. Quantum computing holds enormous promise. But sufficiently powerful quantum computers could eventually break some of the cryptography protecting our financial transactions, sensitive communications and digital systems.

17. We do not know when this will happen. But we know we must prepare for it. Bad actors are already motivated to steal sensitive encrypted data while waiting for quantum computers to decrypt them in future.

18. However, organisations do not become quantum-safe overnight, just because they want to. They must assess the risks, prioritise their systems and data, and identify areas where current encryption can be broken. They need to work with their technology suppliers, test alternative methods of encryption, and progressively migrate their systems.

19. For larger organisations, quantum-safe migration can stretch out over several years. Singapore is therefore encouraging them to start now.

20. In June, CSA released guidance on migration milestones for the owners of our critical information infrastructure (CII). Given the importance of CII systems, we expect CII owners to complete their migration by 2031.

21. Today, we are taking two further steps.

22. First, Singapore will issue guidance for organisations beyond our CII Owners to work towards quantum-safe migration by 2035. This applies to organisations whose exposure to the quantum threat could have serious consequences.

    • They include organisations whose systems hold sensitive and confidential information, that need long-term protection.

    • These could also be organisations that provide communication and transaction services where data integrity and confidentiality are essential.

23. Second, we will introduce a Quantum-Safe Kickstarter Grant to help organisations move from planning to implementation. The Grant will support early pilots in organisations, particularly CII Owners, to identify implementation challenges, test quantum-safe solutions in real operating environments, and build the experience needed for migration at scale.

STAYING AHEAD – ACTING TOGETHER

24. To conclude, scams and quantum present us with very different challenges.

25. With scams, we are racing against attackers who can change their tactics overnight. With quantum, we are racing against time to replace cryptography within complex systems. One demands speed of response. The other demands an early start.

26. But the principles are the same. We need to clearly understand the risks, systematically plan our responses, and take timely action.

27. There is another common thread. Neither challenge can be solved by government alone, or by any country on its own.

28. Staying ahead depends not only on what we can build ourselves, but what we can pool together through mutual support.

CONCLUSION

29. This is ultimately why we gather at SICW.

30. We hope this year’s discussions help participants advance understanding and cooperation in scams, quantum and other areas relevant to securing trust in our digital future.

31. Thank you and have a great day!