Rubénerd!

Two follow-up stories on my post regarding the DBS/POSB ATM saga. Encasing my NETS card in lucite!

Photo by the writer of Some things to Remember.

Notifications

From Channel News Asia, posted yesterday evening:

SINGAPORE: DBS Group Holdings chief executive Piyush Gupta said the bank will provide SMS alerts for ATM withdrawals beyond a certain amount or when it detects unusual transaction activity.

The move comes after 400 customers fell victim to a card skimming fraud where S$500,000 was withdrawn from their bank accounts without their authorisation over two days on January 4 and 5.

On the surface this sounds like great news, and I applaud it.

What worries me are the dates reported. If you'll recall, in my last post the article I quoted said the skimming took place last November. An honest mistake, or have there been more incidents since? And if so, I'm sure other banks have been affected too... are DBS/POSB the only ones fessing up?

Give us better security!

Whatever the case, it seems consumers are starting to demand better security which makes nothing but sense:

SINGAPORE: Most Singaporeans Channel NewsAsia spoke to said they will continue to use ATMs despite the latest fraud which hit 400 POSB and DBS customers this week.

However, they said they expect the bank to beef up ATM security to prevent a similar incident in the future.

Of course, they have reservations about security that should sound familiar to those setting up any secure IT infrastructre:

"Change the PIN number? But I'm afraid I can't remember the number," said one customer.

"Everyone has so many numbers to remember, so many passwords to remember. I think it's difficult," said another.

Leaving aside the issue that unless PINs were changed every single time the precaution wouldn't have prevented the fraud, one can't help but think there has to be a better way.

In the meantime, our old buddy education will have to be employed. The onus should be on banks to inspect their ATMs more thoroughly and regularly for tampering, but consumers should also be made aware of how to spot fraudulent modifications, just as they would look out for suspect email. The fact Singaporeans have largely been spared the onslaught of skimmers in the past may be a fact that works against them.

Despite living in Sydney for now, as a DBS cardholder this story about compromised ATMs still made my blood chill!

Photo by the writer of Some things to Remember.

The backstory

For those who aren't already sick of the news, Robin Chan at The Straits Times summarises the situation:

At least 200 DBS Bank and POSB customers have been hit by an ATM fraud that has seen some $200,000 stolen from their accounts.

The stolen funds were withdrawn from ATMs in Malaysia, DBS said on Thursday.

This was done possibly using 'cloned' cards created by using data stolen at ATMs here, sources say, and is the largest such case of ATM fraud to hit DBS in recent years.

The stories from various sources are heavy on reactions, but light on details. I've seen the words hacking and skimming used, which suggests the ATMs themselves were modified, or extra devices were unscrupiously installed.

The reaction

DBS released a statement on the 05th:

SINGAPORE, 05 January 2012 - Yesterday, some customers informed the bank of unauthorised withdrawals made in Malaysia through their DBS/POSB ATM/Debit cards. [..] The average amount withdrawn was about S$1,000 per account. (The bank’s standard ATM/Debit card withdrawal limit is S$2,000 per day). [..] Investigations are underway.

Sure demonstrates the value of having a withdrawal limit. I'd have mine set even lower, if I could.

The following day, DBS posted a followup with more detail:

SINGAPORE, 06 January 2012 - While investigations are still underway, increasing evidence points to the unauthorised withdrawals as being part of a card skimming operation. Preliminary investigations at this stage reveal that two ATMs at Bugis street have possibly been compromised. We have identified the specific periods when the compromise could have taken place.

I'd noticed most ATMs in Singapore had those green, bulbous "fraudulent device inhibitors" installed on card slots years ago. Either they weren't installed on all machines, or they're not as tamper resistant as we thought they were. In any case, eep.

Needless to say, if you've noticed any suspicous activity on your DBS or POSB accounts, be sure to contact the bank ASAP! If I were in my old apartment there I'd go down the street to Liat Towers and sort it out because... oh wait, they closed that branch :P

A quick tip for those who had the same trouble I had this afternoon!

The message of doom

IMPORTANT: You must verify your email address before your listings can become active. You can verify your email address by clicking the link that was sent to you when you registered. If you need us to send you a new Activation Email, Click Here. If you need to change your email address, enter your new email address below and click the Update button. A new Activation Email will sent automatically to that address.

If you decide to change your email address in the Personal Information screen on Mocca, you should receive an email verifying your new address. Problem is, if you click the the "Click Here to Verify Your Email Address" graphic in the email, it takes you here:

http://www.mocca.com/login.cmp?sfid=###STOREFRONTS_ID###&activationcode=###ACTIVATION_CODE###

I didn't put those words in as variables, literally that's the link that's provided! Clearly someone at Mocca didn't substitute the variables in their string. That's what she said.

Fortunately, at the bottom of the message there's a misleadingly labelled link called "Click Here to Activate your Mocca listing". Clicking THIS link will activate your new email address.

At least I didn't have to contact support

I've been moving off Gmail over the last week or so, and so far VMware and Mocca are the only sites that have given me trouble.

Honestly, who cares about the Australia Network? I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks back. ~ Renai LeMay, of Delimiter

In the words of Daniel Eran Dilger, I do, and here's why.

The Obligatory Nostalgia Trip

The year was 1998 and we had just settled into our English class. Our teacher turned on the television and we began taking notes from the latest episode of Behind the News, an ABC production billed as rendering the news more interesting and understandable for kids. Unlike most of our peers however, we were six thousand kilometres away and watching the programme on the Australia Network, a cable TV station offered in the same SCV package as Deutche Welle and BBC World. Well okay it was called Australia Television back then, but the point stands.

My sister and I moved to Singapore in the mid 1990s when my father's business had us transferred. My mother had also been diagnosed with cancer at the time, and Singapore's medical facilites were above and beyond anything she could have received in Australia, so the timing was nothing short of miraculous.

In a story familiar to most of the tens of thousands of Australian expats living in Singapore, when we first arrived we were desperate to cling to anything that reminded us of home. Before Cold Storage began to sell Vegemite and Tim Tams, we had relatives post us the stuff. We ate spag bowl and sausage rolls perhaps even more than we did back home! And we got the Australia Network on cable. Years later when we found ourselves in Malaysia for a two year stint, we did again.

The old ABC News theme was better

More than "just" a rebroadcast of the ABC (as some Australian Twitterati seem to suggest it is), the Australia Network was a glimpse at home. We were able to watch news in novelty Australian accents, sports the rest of the world didn't care about (well okay we didn't, but they were there!), and all those comedies and dramas that would result in a blank face at a video store or rental place if you asked for them. During huge events like election seasons and natural disasters, their live coverage was invaluable.

In a capacity scant few Australians here realise, the Australia Network also served as a more realisitic and positive representation of Australia as compared to wave after wave of embarrasing, cliché tourism campaigns. Several Singaporeans I knew ended up studying in Australia in part because their parents watched the channel and appreciated what they saw, and many more travelled here after the myths had been dispelled that we all just hang around desert creeks in our tattered togs. One Indian friend of mine even became obsessed with The Castle!

Perhaps the need for such a station has dimished somewhat since the advent of reliable video streaming, torrents (being realistic here) and online versions of Australian newspapers, but the Australia Network is still a custodian of Australian culture in Asia, and I'd argue still plays a vital role in linking Australians overseas with their birth country.

Incidently, this was part of the reason I publically heaved a sigh of relief when Sky lost the tender to the ABC again. If they'd started broadcasting some of the commercial TV we have here, I'd be even more embarrased than those times John Howard came to Singapore and didn't even bother learning to pronounce certain words. It's a mer-lion, not a merl-eee-on, and Asia is import you trollfaced dope! But I digress.

Now all I need is a Singapore Network for here. I stream Class 95 and have my Phua Chu Kang VCDs, but not the same is it. A MediaCorp Singapore Network channel with a mix of Channel 5, 8 and CNA where I can get my Jack Neo, Gurmit Singh, Moses Lim fix would be much appreciated ^^. This reminds me of a story...

Brunei Darussalam is the second least corrupt nation in Asean after Singapore, seventh in Asia-Pacific and at 44th place globally with a score of 5.2, according to the 2011 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index in its report published on Thursday (Dec 1).
~ BruVoice.

It's been while since we've had a Singapore first and Brunei second story. It's hardly fair to compare them to the rest of ASEAN, given they're the only developed countries in the bloc. Still, I suppose it makes them feel good!

In other news, the image included is the Brunei Coat of Arms. Literally.

A news story about lightning strikes in Singapore lead me to the Singapore Civil Defence Force site, which has a ton of super cool posters and handbooks. Naturally, many of these have to be printed ^_^.

The Jakarta Times knows Singapore

First, to the story that sparked this post. Given the wild rain in Sydney again today, this news article from the Jakarta Times of all places seems oddly precedent:

Singapore, The Lightning City
Feng Zengkun & Kezia Toh - Straits Times Indonesia
November 22, 2011

[..] especially as Singapore is one of the lightning capitals of the world.

It also experiences an average of 186 days of lightning per year, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA). This is due to the tropical weather conditions. Each square kilometer of land in Singapore can be struck up to 16 times each year.

That's puts Singapore ahead of the UK in number of strikes on people a year, though far less than the United States. Per capita you've got to think that's awfully high though for a country that's less than 50 kilometres wide!

Treasure trove!

Anyway, the Jakarta Times article mentioned the Singapore Civil Defence Force website had a handbook detailing how to survive lighting storms. Given the rain is pelting us here in Sydney, I figured it could have some advice. Right?

What I didn't expect was an entire site with posters ranging from workplace safety, to fire hazard guides, to earth tremors, to posters detailing emergency procedures and handbooks... it's a veritable treasure trove! All are downloadable in PDFs, and in the English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, the four official languages.

Unfortunately, this one about fire preparadness made me hungry.

We have an A3 printer, which for now has mostly printed anime pictures and scans (cough!) for walls and so on. I think I may have found a new source of posters!

Now this is just too cool for words: a Starbucks branch in Singapore made from railway sleepers.

Reclaimed railroad sleepers from around South-East Asia have been used to line this wall. Where will it live next?

The store also uses LEDs for lighting, which are far nicer than those florescent tubes that buzz and make everyone look terrible.

Aiyo, why so long lor?

I do like their (albeit temporary) themed logo though. Can see the Merlion, the Singapore Flyer, Marina Bay Sands and the Raffles Place building things. Is my homesickness showing through yet?

This post on the Australian government's plan to "streamline" piracy controls" would seem far more authoritative if I picked appropriate images to accompany it.

(Unnecessarily pointless photo of a 1979 car phone by Ben Franske. Get it? Media cartel? Media Car... tel? Media car... telephone? I thought that was funny).

Govt proposes "streamlined" piracy controls

Always on top of such matters, Renai LeMay has reported something that should send chills down every Australian who access the interwebs. You'll want to be sitting down for this, or at least resting on one of those arse cushions they mount on the side of the refurbished Tangaras. Mmm, squishy.

The Federal Government has proposed to modify federal regulations to make it easier for anti-piracy organisations to request details of alleged Internet pirates from ISPs, in a modified process which would make it easier for organisations such as Movie Rights Group and AFACT to pursue individuals allegedly illegally downloading content online.

There are three key parts to this.

The three key parts

I already said that.

It's been said a million times already, but imagine for a second that these media cartels (calling a spade a spade) spent as much time and effort on making it easier for consumers to legally purchase their content. As it stands now, while some people are cheapskates and would never pay for content, I'd argue most people "pirate" content for convenience and due to a lack of access.

Secondly, I'm pretty sure most so-called pirates don't look like that. If they did, they'd be raking in far too much money from cosplay competitions to perform such things. Most likely, they'd be getting other people to do it for them on their behalf, once they realise the DVD they legally purchased can't be played in the media player they legally purchased because of some draconian digital restrictions management.

Thirdly, I'm not a lawyer so I can't comment specifically on whether such moves are unconstitutional, but I find it incredibly offensive that being accused ("allegedly") of a crime is enough to to involve judges and the law. The Stasi of East Germany and The Party of 1984 are calling, they want their methods back.

Icelandic web hosting looks pretty sweet now

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Mmm, ice kachang. That reminds me, I'm hungry.

With the the draconian ACTA being taken seriously in several countries including Australia and Singapore (so much for my backup living plan!), we can only expect more of this nonsense in the future. A sobering thought, huh?

Now HERE was a story I thought looked interesting on TODAYOnline this afternoon:

TPG to move Australia head to Singapore: Report

TPG? Really? Would his head be moving to Singapore to learn how to run efficient ISPs, presumably with the rest of his body?

SINGAPORE - US private equity firm TPG is relocating its Australia head Ben Gray to Singapore from Sydney as it seeks growth in Asia, the Dow Jones reported Thursday.

Okay, so it's this TPG not this TPG. Another pitfall of registering your company with a TLA, or to a lesser extent with an ETLA. IMHO.