As Singaporeans prepare to head to the polls this weekend, the country is also gearing up to counter potential cyber threats, disinformation campaigns, and to protect its electoral integrity. The digitalization of election campaigns, with social media and online platforms as the new town squares, has brought both unprecedented opportunities for engagements but also vulnerabilities.

The question before any modern nation today is clear: In an era when truth itself can be weaponized, how do we safeguard public trust at the ballot box?

As campaigns turn digital, cyber threats follow

Digital transformation has changed the game for election campaigns, with social media platforms playing a strategic role in being key battlegrounds where information and misinformation can be disseminated at speed and scale. Recent events underscore that these threats are not hypothetical, but a reality. During the 2024 United States election, Proofpoint identified a threefold increase in mobile political spam – signaling cyberattackers’ continued exploitation of electoral cycles, and a significant underlying threat as more countries in the region are set to host their elections. Just days before the 2025 General Election, Singapore’s government issued a directive to social media platforms to block posts which seek to exploit Singapore’s national elections for external interests.

The golden age of deepfakes due to GenAI?

Singapore’s high digital penetration rate, coupled with the heightened sensitivities surrounding election periods, is an attractive landscape for those preying to capitalize on division or confusion. In fact, this is already rolling in motion – local media outlet CNA’s investigation revealed that 73 AI-generated, election-related videos were created on social media platforms within days after Singapore’s Writ of Election was issued.

This phenomenon is not unique to Singapore but is also seen in India’s 2024 General Elections and South Korea’s upcoming presidential election. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), deepfake mentions on Southeast Asian cybercriminal forums and instant messaging platforms have jumped by 600 percent in 2024.

There is value in the public’s emotional connections to trusted figures and institutions, and cyberattackers are trained in social engineering to invoke and exploit human behaviors. The rise of Generative AI also now allows attackers to overcome language barriers and craft highly personalized phishing emails. Proofpoint research revealed email fraud attack volume grew in countries such as Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates in 2024 – countries which may have previously seen fewer email attacks due to language barriers.

The race begins: How can we better protect ourselves?

In an online world where almost every aspect of our lives is digitized, discerning authentic information from fabricated content becomes increasingly difficult. Deepfakes are just one part of the puzzle. Beyond elections, cyberattackers keep pace with global happenings to leverage on. For example, Proofpoint has tracked a North Korean threat actor impersonating a journalist seeking details on how South Korea’s security and foreign policies would be affected following the arrest of South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol.

At the end of the day, threat actors exploit people and target people. In fact, Proofpoint’s research revealed a dangerous truth: more than 70 percent of employees in Singapore knowingly engage in risky online actions.

Changing people’s behavior requires awareness and education, but it is also essential to have defensive technologies centered around humans.

The way forward: Human-centric cybersecurity strategies

Human behaviour is notoriously difficult to change – human error is a top contributor of cybersecurity, as echoed by 67 percent of Chief Information Security Officers in Singapore. In response, proactive defence should always be the strategy, specifically addressing human errors such as clicking on malicious links, sharing unverified information, or being swayed by a convincing deepfake.

While much of the discourse focused on AI as a threat multiplier, its immense potential in being part of the defence solution cannot be undermined. Building a resilient digital society requires a shift toward human-centric cybersecurity strategies. AI’s unparalleled capabilities in speed and scale are essential in building human-centric security – providing an always-on visibility on who is being targeted, how, and why they might be susceptible, ultimately strengthening a nation’s first line of defence.

Singapore’s recent action against foreign influencers demonstrates that coordinated efforts to identify and mitigate misinformation are necessary. However, blocking content is only a part of the solution. Empowering citizens to actively defend their own information ecosystem is a more sustainable strategy for the long run, especially as AI increasingly embeds itself deeper into our lives.

In today’s digitalized world, trust has emerged as the most valuable and vulnerable currency. The real test of resilience for a digitally advanced nation like Singapore will not simply be its ability to repel cyberattacks or take down malicious content, but the strength of its citizens’ capacity to discern truth, resist manipulation, and preserve the integrity of democratic processes. Building a collective defense requires not only robust technological safeguards but also an informed, critical, and vigilant population empowered to discern truth from manipulation.

Protecting the ballot box in the digital age is a shared responsibility, starting with every individual’s commitment to seeking, verifying, and sharing information responsibly.

#ElectionSecurity #CyberThreats #DeepfakeAwareness #DigitalIntegrity #HumanCentricCybersecurity