Active interference by one state in the affairs of another is an age-old problem that goes back centuries, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said yesterday.

But now, the Internet age has allowed countries to destabilise others without the need for conventional warfare, through the use of hostile information campaigns, he added.

Mr Shanmugam, who was speaking at the Conference on Foreign Interference Tactics and Countermeasures, gave several historical examples of how foreign interference has destabilised states.