Lorry cranes – although much smaller than mobile cranes and crawler cranes – caused a higher percentage of crane accidents last year.

Mishaps involving lorry cranes accounted for 30 per cent of all crane-related accidents last year.

As lorry cranes are widely used on roads and near residential areas, they have the capacity to cause significant damage to property and endanger lives, said Mr Sam Tan, Minister of State for Manpower.

Speaking at an annual crane safety symposium yesterday, he illustrated the point with an example of a lorry crane that toppled and crashed into a house last year.

About 400 people from the industry attended the symposium, which also included hands-on workshops for operators of different types of cranes.

There are 26,500 cranes, including 3,500 lorry cranes, registered with the Ministry of Manpower.

Crane crashes and uproots pedestrian shelter at Bt Batok

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Stomp, The Straits Times, The New Paper

There have been several high-profile cases involving lorry cranes this year, including two accidents at Bukit Batok which damaged walkways.

Mr Mohamed Abdul Akbar, chairman of the National Crane Safety Taskforce, said the increase in accidents involving lorry cranes is not due to “bad driving” but a result of their increased numbers on the roads over the past years.

The low cost of these lorry cranes – which can be used for lifting and transporting goods – means that they are popular with the construction industry, said Mr Mohamed, who is also the managing director of Nan Guan Construction.

PRESSURE

Mr Edmund Lim, who trains lorry crane operators, thinks that pressure from employers may be a factor leading to the increase in accidents.

The general manager of Wong Fong Academy added: “Everyone faces certain pressures at work, especially when (the operators) have to do quick deliveries.

“Companies can play a part to ensure that their crane operators follow protocols and be more aware of their environment.”

Crane crashes into HDB block at Woodlands Centre

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AsiaOne reader, Stomp, The Straits Times

Mr Mohamed said lorry crane drivers are generally well-trained, but operating a crane requires years of experience.

To deal with the spate of incidents involving lorry cranes, the National Crane Safety Taskforce will be looking into lorry crane operator training and competency.

Mr Mohamed added that the taskforce is considering making operators take part in refresher courses every three years to ensure that their skills are up to date.

He said: “It is the same as driving a car. You may pass your basic driving, but it does not mean that you are an expert.”

Incidents involving cranes this year

April 4

A lorry crane toppled during lifting work at a worksite at Hougang Street 21.

Its load of steel plates fell onto the road and the crane operator had slight injuries.

April 5

A crawler crane toppled at a construction site next to a six-unit apartment block at Aljunied.

No one was injured, but residents had to be evacuated.

April 26

A 24-year-old worker died in Tampines while helping to unload wire mesh from a lorry loader.

He was struck by the wire meshes, which fell as they were being lifted.

The Ministry of Manpower instructed the occupier to stop all lifting activities on the worksite after the accident.

June 17

The crank of a lorry crane hit a covered walkway at Bukit Batok West Avenue 6, causing the roof of the walkway to collapse.

It collapsed on one car, damaging it, while 15 other cars, four motorcycles and the lorry were trapped in the carpark.

No one was hurt.

The driver, who is in his 60s, had forgotten to lower the crane boom.

He was arrested by the police at the scene.

July 20

A covered walkway at Bukit Batok Street 52 was damaged after a lorry crane ran into it.

No one was injured.

A 46-year-old driver was arrested over the accident.

linheng@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on October 28, 2016.
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Cyber criminals can take over any gadget that is able to connect to the Internet – including your smart wristband, your router, and even your smart rice cooker – to launch attacks.

Mr Michael Lee, security evangelist at RSA Asia Pacific & Japan, told The New Paper: “If it can be connected to the Internet, it’s a possible candidate to contribute to an attack.”

Two such attacks occurred on Saturday and on Monday, taking down the Internet on StarHub’s broadband network for about two hours each time.

StarHub said its own customers’ machines were used in the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

A DDoS attack uses multiple hacked devices that can connect to the Internet. These devices are then controlled by the hacker to overwhelm a specific server with requests or traffic, such as log-in requests, causing the server to be unreachable or unavailable.

In a reply to TNP’s queries, StarHub said that it was unable to confirm the types of devices used in the attacks until their staff visit the affected customers’ homes.

However, Internet of Things (IoT) devices played a large role in a recent DDoS attack against United States-based DNS service provider Dyn. (See report above.)

Hackers used Mirai, a malware (short for malicious software) that hijacks Internet-connected video cameras and other IoT devices. Owners who have not changed their devices’ default passwords are especially vulnerable.

The attack brought down sites including Twitter, the Guardian, Netflix, Reddit and CNN for about two hours.

Research company Gartner estimated last year that around six billion connected gadgets and appliances will be in use worldwide this year. The number will reach 20.8 billion by 2020.

The lack of security for these devices are a concern among cyber security experts contacted by TNP.

The executive vice-president and managing director for Asia Pacific for Cloud Security Alliance, Mr Aloysius Cheang, did not mince his words when he spoke to TNP about how IoT devices can be hacked.

He said that security for devices such as wristbands, webcams, rice cookers and speakers is “lousy”.

“How much information can I squeeze into a Bluetooth speaker? How can I put in a firewall? As long as they have your password, they can control it,” he said.

Mr David Maciejak, head of FortiGuard Lion R&D team for Asia Pacific, said IoT manufacturers prefer to compromise security in order to quickly release new products to the market.

And in many cases, the software in these devices cannot be updated to patch flaws.

Mr Maciejak said: “The only way for consumers to tell which IoT devices are more secure is to rely on some sort of trusted third party to evaluate them.

“The consumers cannot tell from the naked eye and it’s not reliable to ask the device manufacturers.”

BETTER PROTECTION

For better protection, consumers who have such IoT devices should immediately change the default passwords of their gadgets.

Mr Cheang said that it is important to change default passwords because the Mirai malware can quickly and spontaneously take over a smart device if it has a default password.

Most smart devices come with a touchscreen panel that you can change passwords with.

Mr David Freer, vice-president of Intel Security Group, Consumer, Asia Pacific, said: “For baby monitoring cameras or web cameras at home, one has to set proper passwords and avoid using default passwords and settings during installation of home cameras.

“Sync with the manufacturer for the latest patches and maybe even set up cloud storage.”

The early adaptors may have to revise their budgets. Experts advised those who have bought smart devices, whose password cannot be changed, to replace them with new devices that have “proper administration and management functions”.

leeganjp@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on October 28, 2016.
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