Cyber crime refers to all sorts of illegal criminal activities carried out over the Internet, such as spam, hacking, harassment, obscene or offensive content and threats. Singapore has seen various instances of individuals falling prey to cyber crime, but as of late, the news has been a flurry with the words "Anonymous", "hacking" and "The Messiah".
The Anonymous, an international network of hacktivists, have brought down a series of local websites in protest. The Messiah, a member of this initiative, recently brought down several websites, such as that of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council, the Straits Times and pop singer/ co-founder of City Harvest Church Sun Ho.
The first of the attacks occurred on Sun Ho's website, on which he announced that Ho's website had "very little security" and that it took him "less than 15 minutes to access".
In the case of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council website, the Messiah hacked the site on October 28 and left the following message on the site: "I have been to various sites and seen how they take the initiative to secure their systems. You have a brain and you have money. You had a choice. Don't blame external factors (Anonymous) for this hack. - The Messiah ;)". The comment was linked to Ang Mo Kio MP Ang Hin Kee's comment on the Woodlands bus interchange incident where a man had spat and verbally attacked commuters.
In addition, the hacker had left another message of Ang "tender(ing) (his) resignation as your minister of parliament" and that "(he was) incapable and failed you".
The Anonymous hacker has been both supported and criticized. In his posts, he urged people to don black and red on November 5th, or black out their Facebook profile pictures to show support towards the initiative. When I went on my own Facebook account on the 5th, I spotted a few of my friends had blacked out profile pictures as well.
This case of hacking is considered cyber crime in Singapore, under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act. I found it interesting to read up on the potential consequences of violating the act- the maximum punishment would be a three-year jail term and a S$10,000 fine on the first conviction.
Although large scale hacking of national websites doesn't happen quite often, cyber crime among personal accounts occur more frequently. In fact, according to a report done by Norton, more than "1.4 million people in Singapore fell victim to cyber crime in the past twelve months". This has caused losses of over US$944 million.
Mobile crimes are getting more common too. Besides theft of mobile phones, there is the occasional odd text message from scammers:
I have personally received such strange messages as well. When I first got the text, my first instinct was to delete it, knowing full well that it doesn't spell anything good. However, after doing so, I thought of my mother and texted her to make sure that she didn't open unfamiliar attachments. (My dad is a very IT-savvy engineer, so I know he would laugh if I tried educating him about cyber crime.)
So how do we educate our loved ones on prevention of cyber crime? Here are a few basics I think we can implement on our own:
1) Don't click on any form of strange emails or text messages that contain dubious links. Simply delete them! I really don't think there's any "proven scientific way to lose 20 kilos in one week", unless you cut yourself in half.
2) If you don't want it to be found, don't post it on the Internet. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and what happens on the Internet will probably stay there too.
3) Make your passwords a little more complicated instead of using easy hints such as your birthday, convenient keyboard combinations like "qwerty", "123123", "123456" or "abc123" etc. It just begs for trouble. Make sure your password contains:
4) On the topic of passwords: do NOT give them out. Same for your personal information such as your PIN number. If you ever meet Jack the Ripper and he asks for your Facebook password, faint first so that he'll never extract it out of you.
5) Frequently update your computer security such as firewalls and new softwares. Not being cautious with your security is like leaving your house door unlocked with a welcome banner splayed all across the front.
6) Do not connect to free or unsecured wifi connections. It is an excellent opportunity for hackers to access your computer over the Internet. Good things never come free of charge!
7) Never leave your devices unattended. Cyber thieves could engage in a myriad of activities once they get their hands on your tech- from stealing your passwords to using your credit card information. The potential damage would cost you more than just a $2,000 Macbook.
Although the saying, "Prevention is better than cure" would probably come off as cheesy and cliche, it still holds true and we should definitely take precautions for our own cyber security.
This case of hacking is considered cyber crime in Singapore, under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act. I found it interesting to read up on the potential consequences of violating the act- the maximum punishment would be a three-year jail term and a S$10,000 fine on the first conviction.
Although large scale hacking of national websites doesn't happen quite often, cyber crime among personal accounts occur more frequently. In fact, according to a report done by Norton, more than "1.4 million people in Singapore fell victim to cyber crime in the past twelve months". This has caused losses of over US$944 million.
(Source: Norton)
Mobile crimes are getting more common too. Besides theft of mobile phones, there is the occasional odd text message from scammers:
I have personally received such strange messages as well. When I first got the text, my first instinct was to delete it, knowing full well that it doesn't spell anything good. However, after doing so, I thought of my mother and texted her to make sure that she didn't open unfamiliar attachments. (My dad is a very IT-savvy engineer, so I know he would laugh if I tried educating him about cyber crime.)
So how do we educate our loved ones on prevention of cyber crime? Here are a few basics I think we can implement on our own:
1) Don't click on any form of strange emails or text messages that contain dubious links. Simply delete them! I really don't think there's any "proven scientific way to lose 20 kilos in one week", unless you cut yourself in half.
2) If you don't want it to be found, don't post it on the Internet. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and what happens on the Internet will probably stay there too.
3) Make your passwords a little more complicated instead of using easy hints such as your birthday, convenient keyboard combinations like "qwerty", "123123", "123456" or "abc123" etc. It just begs for trouble. Make sure your password contains:
1) a number,
2) a capital letter,
3) a symbol,
4) lyrics to an Adele song,
5) a hieroglyph, and
6) a recipe for tau suan.
(I'm kidding about the last three, but not the first three.)
4) On the topic of passwords: do NOT give them out. Same for your personal information such as your PIN number. If you ever meet Jack the Ripper and he asks for your Facebook password, faint first so that he'll never extract it out of you.
5) Frequently update your computer security such as firewalls and new softwares. Not being cautious with your security is like leaving your house door unlocked with a welcome banner splayed all across the front.
6) Do not connect to free or unsecured wifi connections. It is an excellent opportunity for hackers to access your computer over the Internet. Good things never come free of charge!
7) Never leave your devices unattended. Cyber thieves could engage in a myriad of activities once they get their hands on your tech- from stealing your passwords to using your credit card information. The potential damage would cost you more than just a $2,000 Macbook.
Although the saying, "Prevention is better than cure" would probably come off as cheesy and cliche, it still holds true and we should definitely take precautions for our own cyber security.
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