In order to crack down on the plethora of digital scams and malicious websites proliferating daily, the Singapore Government is developing AI-driven tools that would autonomously detect, stop, and disrupt such cybercrime.
Scams result in huge losses for victims and malicious content, such as deepfakes, spread the kind of misinformation that can have an impact on society and the national economy. Speaking on the matter in Singapore Parliament on Tuesday, Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo said, “We will continue to review our laws, to ensure their ability to deal with traditional crimes committed in cyberspace, and strengthen our regulatory frameworks, to better leverage technology to combat cybercrimes.”
CNA reported that Teo, who is also Minister for Digital Development and Information, said, “Criminals are exploiting technology, in particular, Artificial Intelligence (AI), to carry out more sophisticated crimes and to hit more victims.”
With a plan to fight AI with AI, the minister said that the Home Team — as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is also known — was leveraging Artificial Intelligence in its work to disrupt scams. The minister was laying out plans for MHA spending.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its cousin Machine Learning (ML) were harnessed by the Scam Analytics and Tactical Intervention System (SATIS), jointly developed by GovTech and the Home Team’s science and technology agency HTX.
SATIS hunts all kinds of digital fraud — government website impersonation, phishing sites copying bank websites, and more.
In the same context, Sun Xueling, Minister of State for Home Affairs and Social and Family Development, said on Tuesday that the scope of work of SATIS would expand in order to weed out scams related to online payments and mobile numbers.
Teo said that MHA had put in place a governance framework for the use of AI within the ministry’s functions — this framework covered both principles guiding the implementation of AI projects and compliance with Singapore laws.
“We will also put in place safeguards, including to ensure that there is an appropriate level of human intervention to act as a layer of checks and ensure accountability,” she said. Home Team officers would be trained in using the AI-powered tools, she said.
Caning as punishment for certain scammers
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs and Social and Family Development Sun Xueling agreed with an MP who said that caning could be considered as the punishment for certain kinds of scammers.
Money mules, people who allow scammers to use their online credentials and bank accounts to transfer stolen money, were on the radar of law enforcement and measures would be undertaken to discourage and deter them, said Sun.
The MoS was responding to a suggestion from MP Tan Wu Meng (PAP-Jurong), who had earlier called for mandatory caning for scammers in the serious cases. “We must send a clear message to scammers, the syndicates and those who abet them: if you mess with our people, make off with the life savings of Singaporeans, scam Singaporeans, we must do everything in our power to teach the scammers a lesson they won’t forget,” said the MP. Sun agreed with the need for a stiff punishment.
“We have been clamping down on [money mules], because they are the main way overseas scammers launder their ill-gotten gains and transfer it out of Singapore,” she said.
“We will also work with the industry to implement cooling-off measures for certain activities which are tell-tale signs of money mule activity,” she said.
