There are “some indicators” that Singapore was recently the target of an information warfare campaign by a state seeking to legitimise its actions on the international sphere, said an academic giving evidence to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods in a private session on Friday (Mar 16).

Dr Gulizar Haciyakupoglu – a research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for National Security from the RSIS at NTU – said a state tried to influence certain segments of society through news articles and social media, in order to “legitimise” its “actions on an international sphere”. She also said Singapore had previously been the victim of several cyberattacks, including attacks on sensitive ministries.

Dr Damien Cheong, a research fellow from the RSIS, also said Singapore is not “fully prepared” for methods by which disinformation campaigns are carried out. He said there are cyber-armies in the region, including Malaysia and Indonesia, that can be easily deployed against Singapore directly or as proxies for another country, and warned that incidents could be – and have been – created to generate distrust among highly trusted institutions, such as the police.

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