At stake is more than national security; it is the integrity of our economic ecosystem and the trust that underpins it
DISINFORMATION, defined as the deliberate creation and spread of false or misleading content with the intent to deceive and cause harm, is often framed as a matter of politics or national security. But it is also an economic risk – one that can erode trust, destabilise markets and hit businesses hard.
When President Tharman Shanmugaratnam addressed Parliament last month, he placed resilience at the centre of Singapore’s response to a volatile world, warning that foreign actors will seek to spread disinformation and cause societal rifts.
He stressed that Singapore would strengthen its capabilities to counter hybrid threats: harmful, coordinated activities that combine overt and covert, military and non-military means to destabilise societies, often using tactics like disinformation. These often fall below the threshold of outright war.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has since moved to amend Singapore’s foreign interference laws to strengthen our defences against evolving disinformation tactics.
These moves are timely. Information has become a new front line for national security and defence concerns, and the stakes are not only about sovereignty, but also about livelihoods.
Disinformation at our doorstep
Singapore has already had a glimpse of how hostile actors operate. These incidents show that the integrity of our information environment can never be taken for granted.
In July 2025, Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam confirmed that authorities were dealing with an ongoing attack on Singapore’s critical information infrastructure. The state-sponsored cyberespionage group UNC3886 had targeted systems that power essential services. It was a reminder that our networks are constantly probed, and that complacency can have far-reaching consequences.
The 2025 General Election provided another test. A joint statement by MHA and the Elections Department revealed that two leaders from Malaysia’s Parti Islam Se-Malaysia had attempted to interfere in Singapore’s politics. They posted commentary urging Singaporeans to vote along racial and religious lines.
The episode was a stark reminder of how outsiders might seek to fracture the multiracial harmony that underpins our society.
Further back in October 2024, 10 inauthentic websites were blocked under the Broadcasting Act after they spoofed local domain names and borrowed familiar visuals to pass themselves off as credible news sources. Then in June 2025, researchers at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies found that one of these sites had returned under a new brand.
These tactics illustrate how deceptive online activities can destabilise an information environment, eroding confidence in genuine sources and amplifying confusion at scale.
The economic face of hybrid threats
The consequences of disinformation and hybrid threats extend beyond politics. They spill into the economy, where trust is a currency as valuable as capital.
False narratives can undermine consumer confidence. They can spark boycotts, unsettle investors and tarnish reputations overnight. For listed companies, even a temporary dip in sentiment can translate into significant losses. For smaller firms, the damage can be existential.
The recent spate of bulk order scams against small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) offers a telling example. Syndicates posing as legitimate buyers placed large fake orders, leaving small businesses out of pocket and scrambling to recover.
At first glance, this may seem different from foreign disinformation campaigns. But the underlying logic is the same. Both rely on deception at scale, exploit vulnerabilities in trust, and can destabilise confidence across entire sectors.
For SMEs, which often operate with thin margins and fewer buffers, such shocks can be crippling. Beyond the immediate financial loss, supply chains are disrupted, and hard-won relationships with partners and clients may be shaken. The cumulative effect is to inject uncertainty into an economy that depends on reliability and trust.
Technology as a force multiplier
What makes this moment more precarious is the accelerating role of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Tools that create convincing text, images and video in seconds have dramatically lowered the barriers to deception. Deepfakes that once required specialist skills can now be produced with a few prompts.
We have already seen the impact abroad. During the conflict between Iran and Israel, AI-generated videos circulated widely, blurring the line between authentic battlefield footage and fabricated content.
Closer to Silicon Valley, experiments with Grok, the chatbot developed by xAI, showed how quickly AI systems can be manipulated to produce offensive, misleading or false outputs. Meanwhile, major technology platforms have scaled back trust-and-safety teams and fact-checking efforts. The very spaces where disinformation spreads fastest are reducing their safeguards.
The result is that societies, governments and businesses are left to absorb more of the risk.
Building resilience together
We cannot expect Big Tech to change course. The responsibility now falls on governments, businesses and citizens to strengthen resilience in their own ways.
For businesses, especially SMEs, this means having playbooks to respond quickly when falsehoods or scams strike. That includes systems for early detection, clear communication with customers and partners, and collaboration with regulators when necessary. The reputational cost of silence or delay can often exceed the direct financial loss.
For citizens, it means developing habits of verification. Fact-checking is not only the work of journalists or researchers. It is also a civic skill. Knowing how to question sources, cross-check claims and pause before sharing can blunt the spread of harmful narratives.
For Singapore as a whole, regional collaboration is essential. Disinformation and hybrid threats do not respect borders. Sharing intelligence, detection methods and best practices with Asean neighbours can help us anticipate tactics before they reach our shores.
The next frontier of resilience
At stake is more than national security. It is the integrity of our economic ecosystem and the trust that underpins it.
Singapore has long thrived because of our reputation for stability, reliability and openness. These are also the qualities that disinformation and hybrid threats aim to corrode. Protecting them will require vigilance not only from the government, but also from businesses and individuals alike.
The next frontier of resilience will not only be in our diplomacy or defence. It will also be in our ability to protect confidence – in our politics, markets and one another.