Scammers are using AI to commit crimes at speed. How is Singapore police's new Cyber Command keeping up?

AI is now being used by criminals to commit crimes at an alarming pace, according to cybersecurity experts at Singapore Police Force's (SPF) new Cyber Command. A recent example of this was a courier company phishing scam where victims were tricked into paying a small fee to get their parcels redelivered. The scammers used AI to create a website that appeared legitimate, making it difficult for victims to realize they were being scammed.

Inspector of Police Harbhajan Kaur explained that AI has made social engineering more convincing and scalable by enabling deepfakes, voice cloning, and hyper-personalized messaging. These techniques make phishing attacks harder to detect, which in turn increases the number of victims who willingly transfer money. This trend complicates prosecution efforts as the transfers often appear voluntary on the surface.

Cyber Command, a recently formed unit of the SPF, aims to tackle these challenges by consolidating various cybercrime-fighting units and working with local and international partners to identify syndicates and facilitators involved in cybercrime and scam operations. The unit also utilizes AI and machine learning to analyze data quickly and identify patterns across reports, reducing manual labor and enabling them to focus on larger campaign disruptions.

Cybersecurity professional Syazwan Suhaimi noted that while AI poses a threat, it also provides a way for law enforcement to uncover scams more efficiently. By retraining officers and using advanced tools, Cyber Command is able to stay ahead of the curve in countering the growing trend of tech-enabled scams.