The gaping hole in Singapore's cyber-security battle

Billions flow into innovation, but resilience depends on people. The lack of talent is unsustainable in an era of AI and deepfakes.

- Jess Ng

Singapore's digital economy continues to power ahead. From online commerce to financial services and healthcare, more of daily life is shifting online.

The country's gross merchandise value increased by 13 per cent in a year to nearly $29 billion. But behind this growth lies a sobering reality: every new digital service expands the attack surface for cyber criminals. And the threats are multiplying.

Today's attackers are faster, stealthier and increasingly armed with artificial intelligence (AI). Deepfake impersonations, self-learning malware, and "cybercrime-as-a-service" are now part of the landscape.

AI-powered cybercrime is accelerating, with threat actors leveraging tools such as FraudGPT, BlackmailerV3, and ElevenLabs to craft hyper-realistic phishing campaigns without the ethical restrictions of publicly available AI tools.

In 2024, cyber criminals posted more than 100 billion compromised records on underground forums - a spike of 42 per cent year-over-year.

Well-known entities such as BestCombo, BloddyMery and ValidMail were the most active cyber-criminal groups.

With such groups, what was once the preserve of a few skilled hackers can now be bought off the shelf, lowering the barriers for anyone with malicious intent.

For Singapore, the challenge is not just about technology. It is about people. A shortage of cyber-security professionals is leaving Singapore exposed at a critical time.

LEAN TEAMS, RISING RISKS

A recent Fortinet survey found that 80 per cent of organisations in Singapore experienced a breach in 2024 linked to the skills gap the growing shortage of qualified professionals needed to protect organisations from increasingly complex cyber threats.