Singapore will have the latest AI-powered cyber defence tools from Google to quickly find and fix vulnerabilities in online systems while also spotting and stopping potential scams that target citizens in the city-state.
The government is partnering the Internet giant on its Fairwind Program, launched last month to find and autonomously fix vulnerabilities in today’s complex infocomm infrastructure.
Through the programme, cyber defenders will receive access to Google’s most advanced cybersecurity tools, including the Gemini 4 Argon model, and the CodeMender harness.
These tools give cyber defenders a vital adaptation window to help find, verify and fix vulnerabilities at “agentic scale and speed” instead of taking weeks to do so, according to Google.
By proactively patching weaknesses ahead of time, the programme aims to protect essential systems and services from operational disruption and cybersecurity threats.
The partnership, announced today at the Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW) event, deepens the country’s collaboration with Google to fight cyber threats. It had worked with Google to develop anti-scam measures for Android phones earlier.
The country’s GovTech agency is now working with Google to develop an on-device scam detection AI model for Android devices. This will alert users in real-time about potential scam attempts, while preserving user privacy.
Today, messages are scanned in the cloud for any potential malware. However, encrypted messages are not scanned since they are protected. To solve this, Google DeepMind and GovTech are bringing scam detection analysis directly onto the device.
The Singapore model will be trained on local data. So, it will spot impersonations of public institutions, banks, and local figures, for example.
The model will also undergo continuous training to adapt to evolving scam tactics, ensuring that it can accurately distinguish everyday conversations from the structured, high-pressure manipulation tactics common in social engineering scams.
Speaking at the SICW event today, Minister for Digital Development and Information, Josephine Teo, said: “If our devices can recognise signs of manipulation early, we can help potential victims avoid financial or credential loss, while keeping their personal messages on their devices.”
“In other words, we can provide stronger protection while preserving privacy,” she added.
By running on user devices instead of going to external cloud servers, the new AI-powered anti-scam tool promises faster analysis of conversation patterns to detect and alert users to scams in real time.
The tool also triggers a warning directly on the user’s screen, prompting them to pause and exercise caution before any financial loss or credential theft occurs, according to Google.
A magnet for scams, Singapore has been on the forefront in collaborating with Google to fight these online scourges.
Since enhanced fraud protection was rolled out on Google’s app store, more than 3.3 million installation attempts of potentially malicious applications across more than 770,000 devices have been blocked. Also prevented are 68,000 unique apps from potentially being misused for financial fraud and scams.
“Working with Google DeepMind, we’re bringing advanced AI protection directly onto citizens’ devices,” said Mark Chen, director for trust and safety at GovTech Singapore.
“This allows us to catch highly targeted, local scam attempts in real time while keeping personal communications completely private,” he added.
JJ Geewax, director for Applied AI at Google DeepMind, said: “As scam tactics evolve, protecting people requires new, more advanced, more intelligent approaches.”
“Pairing Google DeepMind’s research with GovTech Singapore’s local domain and data expertise means we can confront this urgent public safety challenge head-on,” he added.
