Firms Urged To Think Like Cyber Criminals To Boost Defences

Industry Leaders Discuss Plans To Stay Ahead In Increasingly Complex Threat Landscape

- Sarah Koh

Organisations need to think like cyber criminals and proactively run simulated real-world attacks internally to better prepare their cyber defenders in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), speakers at a cyber-security conference said.

"Globally, we are seeing growing interest, and increasingly brazen activity, against critical infrastructure: ports, utilities, telecommunications, transport networks," said Singapore's Defence Cyber chief Clarence Cai on July 4.

"Not perhaps for immediate disruption or commercial gain, but to map dependencies, identify vulnerabilities and pre-position for possible future leverage," Colonel (COL) Cai noted.

"Now add AI to the mix — and this threat landscape goes on steroids."

Urging organisations to use AI to anticipate attack tactics, he said: "This mindset shift might be the most important variable in the fight to come."

COL Cai was one of several speakers at ST Engineering's Cybersecurity Summit 2025, which brought together industry leaders to discuss AI-powered cyber attacks and plans to stay ahead in an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Cyber attackers can run countless permutations on how to breach systems, considering factors such as credentials to unlock systems and potential points of exploitation, he said.

In sharp contrast, defenders often think in a more checklist-oriented manner, he said during his keynote address at the event.

He added that this fundamental difference gives attackers the upper hand — unless defenders learn to adopt the dynamism that attackers have, which would level the playing field.