Sri Lanka eyes unified cyber defenses against rising identity fraud threats

Sri Lanka is moving to strengthen the cybersecurity foundations of its national digital identity and digital public infrastructure programs with plans for a unified National Cybersecurity Framework aimed at protecting government systems, digital services and citizens from increasingly sophisticated online fraud.

The initiative comes as the country advances the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity (SL-UDI) program and broader digital transformation efforts, which will rely on trusted digital identity, data exchange and online service delivery platforms.

The focus on identity-related fraud is particularly significant as Sri Lanka prepares to roll out SL-UDI, a MOSIP-based national digital identity system designed to support authentication, e-KYC and digital government services. As digital identity adoption grows, governments are increasingly pairing identity programs with cybersecurity and fraud prevention initiatives to defend against synthetic identity fraud, account takeover and AI-enabled impersonation attacks.

Speaking at the SL Scam Shield Executive Breakfast Forum, Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne said Sri Lanka’s current cybersecurity environment remains fragmented across government agencies, financial institutions and telecommunications providers, creating vulnerabilities that require a coordinated national response.

Weeraratne also praised Google Cloud and NCINGA for developing the locally built “Scam Shield” platform.

Weeraratne outlined the government’s vision for a “Unified National Shield” designed to ensure citizens can participate in the digital economy with confidence.

“It is critical to understand the importance of cybersecurity as a fundamental aspect of national security, moving beyond a mere technical concern.”

Discussions focused on the growing sophistication of AI-enabled fraud, including voice cloning, identity theft and synthetic identity attacks.

Weeraratne argued that traditional rule-based security systems are increasingly inadequate against modern fraud threats.

“The change from traditional, rule-based security systems to advanced AI-driven models, such as Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), signifies a major evolution in combating complex fraud. GNNs are mainly effective in identifying intricate, multi-layered transaction fraud, and for designing synthetic identities within interconnected networks,” he told Biometric Update. This shift features the need for more sophisticated analytical tools to address the rising challenges in cybersecurity, he added.

The comments suggest Sri Lanka views cybersecurity, fraud prevention and digital identity as increasingly interconnected components of its broader digital public infrastructure strategy.

Article Topics

AI fraud  |  cybersecurity  |  identity theft  |  SL-UDI (Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity)  |  Sri Lanka  |  synthetic identity fraud