Enhancing Competency of Home Team to Tackle Online Crime

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) how is the Ministry training and improving the competency of Home Team officers to collate evidence and tackle online crimes; and (b) whether it is working with the private sector to improve its detection and forensics capabilities.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) equips its officers with the skills to tackle online crimes, through specialised and structured training programmes.

Newly-appointed Police Officers undergo both theory and hands-on training on how to respond to online crime as part of their basic training programme. Those appointed as Investigation Officers receive additional training on how to search and seize information technology (IT)-related evidence on laptops and mobile devices, and the proper handling of such evidence.

Police’s cyber investigations and forensics capabilities have also been strengthened. Last year, Police established a Cybercrime Command in the Criminal Investigation Department to build up capabilities to combat cybercrime. In addition, Cybercrime Response Teams were formed in the six Police Land Divisions to equip frontline units with the necessary investigative and forensic capabilities to deal with cybercrime.

To combat e-commerce scams, the Police reach out to organisations such as financial institutions and remittance agencies, to train their staff to detect victims of scams when they process remittance requests. Police also engage online advertising portals to proactively identify and remove fraudulent advertisers from these online platforms.

In addition, SPF has forged close partnerships with international and local partners to tackle cybercrime. These partners include the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation, Infocomm Development Authority, the Cyber Security Agency (CSA), local research institutes and institutes of higher learning. Such partnerships strengthen SPF's cyber-forensic and detection capabilities in areas, such as malware analysis and uncovering trends in online scams.