Transcript of Media Doorstop by Mr K Shanmugam, Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, at the Singapore International Cyber Week, on 13 October 2026

Question: Last year, you mentioned the UNC3886 attack. What emerging cyber threats have Singapore detected?

Senior Minister: We haven’t seen another attack like UNC3886 since. What has happened has been made transparent, made public. We’ve said when some things have happened.

So, the short answer to your question is: we haven’t come across another attack like what we have heard from other countries. But, you know, also, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Question: You met some frontier AI firms today. Which firms did you meet with? Did we have any asks of them, and what was their response?

Senior Minister: I met some firms in different contexts – face-to-face meetings, as well as in a broader setting with ministers during lunch. They included all the major firms: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon and others.

The key ask from Singapore, as well as many of the other countries, was: look, when something happens, can we have full transparency immediately? Because we need to know something when it happens at almost real-time – in fact, in real-time – and we need to know exactly what’s happened, because the companies will know that, to the extent that they know. That was the main ask.

And, of course, one of the key purposes of this conference is to try and deepen the partnership between government and industry. I’m not only talking about the Singapore government. We are all now dependent on these major tech companies. They have the technology, they have the platforms, they have the resources, and countries have to work with them. That was a key ask.

Among that was also that we need to exchange notes, and they need to notify us early on when something happens, taking the lead from the experience in Australia and what happened there.

Question: Is Singapore in talks with other countries in the ASEAN bloc to discuss coordinated responses to rogue AI agent attacks?

Senior Minister: During this conference, we had a number of ASEAN countries taking part, and the discussions were common to us. ASEAN officials and ministers spoke up during the roundtable too.

At the same time, ASEAN has its own framework for dealing with cyber issues, but I would say it’s a work in progress. A lot has to be done. We are all catching up on this issue of AI, and each country is focused on its own issues.

ASEAN collectively has some work to do in trying to deal with it together too. So, these are discussions that have to carry on.

Question: To what extent do you think cutting-edge AI cybersecurity tools should be made available to governments and the general public?

Senior Minister: I would put the question this way: can AI be used by bad people to create a lot of damage?

If the answer is yes – and I think most people think the answer is yes – then bad people, if they get access to cutting-edge tools, can create havoc and even cause widespread physical damage and kill people.

If that is so, then would you automatically make it available broadly, or would you put a framework around it as to who can access it?

It’s just like, would you give a very powerful weapon system to anyone? There are reasons why these things are controlled, and I think there is a reason for being careful about who gets to access cutting-edge tools and under what conditions.

Question: Going back to the discussions you had with the AI leaders, as well as other world leaders, how useful do you think those discussions were for improving international norms, and would you characterise those discussions as productive?

Senior Minister: I would, first of all, not say I met with world leaders. I met with people who, in their respective countries, have a significant role to play in this field.

Second, the discussions centred on how AI is coming on and what do we think are the challenges. These are discussions which are essential. There were varied viewpoints, sometimes opposing viewpoints, and it was good that we provided a platform for these viewpoints to be expressed. That is, I would say, part of the way in which you try and find common ground.

So, I would say today’s meetings, and the meetings over the next few days, are ways in which we try and find common ground, and then hopefully, it makes it better for all the countries.

Question: What further changes to our cyber-defence strategy are needed to protect our critical information infrastructure?

Senior Minister: I announced in my speech today; we announced the Cybersecurity Strategy 2026. It’s got many facets, but if I can summarise it into three points: it’s to act proactively, act at scale, and to deal with issues much faster.

What do I mean? Act proactively: in the past, cybersecurity defence meant hardening your systems, working on them, building walls and so on. All of those are important. But today, I think you need to go much more proactive, and you need to hunt actively for flaws in your system and patch them up very fast. You don’t have much time, because people find the flaws very quickly. So, to be very much more proactive – apart from hardening your systems and seeing what the holes are to be patched up, you actually actively hunt for flaws. I would say it’s a refinement, but qualitatively at a higher level, because you are going to use much higher-powered technology.

Second, act at scale – combining the resources, bringing in government, bringing in the private sector, bringing in the cybersecurity professionals, the companies, bringing in partners to work together on this, and we are setting up a National Cybersecurity Command Centre, NC3, where everyone will have a common situational picture. With that, we can put our resources together, identify the threats, work on them and try to solve the problems.

The third point – act faster, meaning – again, working with the industry. The moment you are attacked, people attack with speed using AI. We have to defend with speed using AI, and try and deal with it even as the attacks are taking place, immediately.

These are things that I would say we were already trying to do, but AI has revolutionised the whole approach, both for attack and for defence. So, we are announcing this as a much broader national cybersecurity strategy.

Question: A follow-up question regarding the asks of the AI companies and tech companies. You mentioned that there were some asks from Singapore as well as other countries. Were the companies able to agree to our asks, and will the information or access they provide be able to inform our next steps regarding AI safety?

Senior Minister: I think it’s difficult to say whether the information they provide will enhance, because it’s based on situations where we are attacked.

But based on past attacks, we can identify some of the things that need to be done. Information needs to be given to us faster. Information of a certain quality needs to be given.

Generally, the companies have expressed an attitude of cooperation. But I would say it’s work in progress. It’s something that we are talking to them about.