A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) captain was sentenced to 20 weeks’ jail on Monday after buying credit card details off the Dark Web to purchase vouchers on online application Fave.
Yang Jiafeng, 32, pleaded guilty to three charges under the Computer Misuse Act. Another charge was taken into consideration.
Yang, a regular in the SAF and a captain in the SAF Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Training Centre, got to know someone identified as “Mr Tree” through an online forum on the Dark Web.
He corresponded with Mr Tree through the e-mail service provider as he wanted to purchase multiple third-party credit card credentials, and he paid with bitcoins, Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheng Yuxi said.
He then created three accounts on Fave and linked the credit card details he bought to these accounts.
Between February and March 2018, Yang bought more than 80 e-vouchers worth more than $10,600 and spent more than $4,000 worth of credits at merchants such as Tung Lok Seafood and Famous Amos.
DPP Cheng said he then refunded these vouchers in order to obtain online credits from Fave so he could buy more items with these credits.
SINGAPORE – Facebook has blocked access to a page on its platform that has been publishing falsehoods on various issues in Singapore, including the coronavirus outbreak, but not without registering its protest.
The social media giant on Tuesday (Feb 18) disabled access to the States Times Review (STR) Facebook page, making it unavailable to users in Singapore after it was required to do so under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma).
Commenting on the move, Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said it was especially important to stop the spread of falsehoods as Singapore battles the coronavirus disease, known as Covid-19.
“The reason why we need to act swiftly is because if we don’t, then these falsehoods can cause anxiety, fear and even panic,” he told reporters yesterday at an event held by the Hindu Endowments Board to discuss precautionary measures against the coronavirus.
The STR Facebook page, owned by Singaporean Alex Tan Zhi Xiang, has received three correction directions under the fake news law since last November. Two had to do with the virus outbreak.
A babysitter is on trial for allegedly poisoning two babies with various drugs, including those used for anxiety disorders, insomnia, and allergies.
Sa’adiah Jamari, 38, faces two counts of administering poison to a five-month-old girl and an 11-month-old girl in 2016. They are not related.
Sa’adiah allegedly gave the younger victim drugs such as alprazolam, commonly used for anxiety disorders, and zolpidem, used for sleeping problems, over November and December 2016.
The older victim was allegedly fed drugs like chlorphenamine, an antihistamine.
Yesterday, at the start of the trial, the court heard that Sa’adiah, a registered nurse, was working freelance and had advertised her babysitting services online.
The mother of the five-month-old testified yesterday that Sa’adiah contacted her after she posted on Facebook about urgently needing a babysitter for her baby and five-year-old girl.
The mother, 29, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, said Sa’adiah started taking care of her daughters in November 2016.
SINGAPORE: The outbreak of COVID-19, has shown that Singaporeans are not afraid or reluctant to come forward to make a difference. And tech is quickly becoming the enabler for such collective efforts.
This is a far cry from the attention it has otherwise received in being a scourge that spreads and catalyses a pandemic of fear — DRUMS (Distortions, Rumours, Untruths, Misinformation and Smears).
SMALL DEEDS EVERYWHERE
From #braveheartsg, a movement that supports frontline medical staff, and Be Kind SG, a group that provides micro-volunteering opportunities to working adults, to the anonymous donors who left masks at lift lobbies, we see acts of compassion and generosity around us.
Better.sg, a volunteer-run non-profit group set up Mask Go Share, a website that connects people with extra masks and hand sanitisers to those who need them. The site also publishes maps of one-bedroom and two-bedroom HDB rental flats so that people who want to help needy households can provide targeted assistance.
On a regular day, there are many individuals who use digital technologies innovatively to help people solve problems they face in their daily lives.
Last year, the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) conducted a study on sharing initiatives in Singapore. We mapped initiatives that involved the sharing and re-distribution of different types of resources, such as spaces, products, time and skills. Many of those initiatives generate revenue for developers, but there is a growing number of ground-up initiatives that are not revenue-generating or profit-making.
Some of these initiatives facilitate the sharing and redistribution of daily items or those that come in handy during small emergencies – for example food swaps, book-sharing, umbrella-sharing and loan of household items.
Others bring people together to share intangible resources such as time and skills – for instance time-banking, repair services and cooperatives.
However, what underpins all of them is a belief in people’s ability to work together to solve problems and help the less fortunate.
Volunteers prepping ingredients at Willing Hearts.
The founders of these initiatives see small and big acts of sharing as ways to pay it forward, build community resilience and promote a sustainable environment for all in the long run.
Looking to the future, more can be done to help them.
SUPPORT FOR GROUND-UP INITIATIVES
On Feb 12, the COVID-19 inter-ministry task force announced that the Government was setting up a centralised online platform for ground-up efforts. Preliminary details indicate that the platform will provide information on what is needed, ground-up groups and government initiatives.
This effort in consolidating information on various initiatives set-up to tackle COVID-19 is an important one. Users will be able to identify with ease and assurance how they can play a part; organisers can determine where the gaps in service provision are and the potential collaborators they can work with to upscale efforts.
However, more can be done for ground-up initiatives to become a permanent fixture in the Singapore way of life.
Our study found that organisers of ground-up initiatives face several challenges in upscaling their efforts.
For one, there is the problem of sustainability as organisers who are new to the space often face difficulties in recruiting and retaining volunteers.
Although existing platforms such as giving.sg and volunteer.sg help to make these important connections, most of them link volunteers with registered charities and organisations and not unregistered ground-up initiatives.
A fellow researcher at IPS has just started Serve.sg, an open-source volunteer matching platform to connect those interested in giving their time with those who start ground-up initiatives and need support. More focus must be given to connecting organisers of such fledgling initiatives with those willing to share their time and energy.
Second, many initiatives are borne out of the founders’ own pockets and such short-lived funding threatens the longevity of an initiative.
There is currently a slate of funding programmes to help non-profit organisations achieve their goals and several Community Development Councils have grants to support ground-up initiatives.
Local community group, StandUpForSG distributing messages of encouragement from the public to healthcare workers at Yishun bus interchange on Feb 14. (Photo: TODAY / Najeer Yusof)
While efforts are made to simplify applications for support, organisers of ground-up initiatives, especially those who have less resources, may still find such processes intimidating. Early-stage consultation to help individuals think through their desired outcomes, target audiences and milestones will not only alleviate their burden but also nudge them to think what they want to achieve in the long-run and how they can get there.
Third, if we are serious about changing the tone of governance in Singapore, from government-led problem solving to a democracy of deeds — as described by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in his dialogue last year on building Singapore together — the regulatory landscape which is work-in-progress must be developed together with people involved in the innovation space and ground-up community work.
This can be achieved through an engagement process such as the citizens’ jury or workgroup that involves relevant stakeholders in rigorous and informed deliberation resulting in agreed solutions.
In Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen’s Total Defence Day message delivered on Friday (Feb 14), he reminded Singaporeans of the sixth pillar of defence — digital defence — launched in 2019. His message, reminding citizens to be vigilant and do their part to protect society and communities from online harms, is timely.
The COVID-19 outbreak and small deeds on day to day basis have shown that technology is a positive and powerful tool for collective problem-solving and action.
Let us not be distracted by the bad eggs and focus on what can be done to bring out the latent capacity among people to help one another.
Carol Soon is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. She works with different agencies on citizens’ panels and led the study on sharing initiatives in Singapore. The report can be found here.
One of the requirements for incorporating a company in Singapore is that it should have a registered office address.
Traditionally, businesses would rent a physical space to use as their office.
Recently, however, some companies have chosen to utilise virtual offices, where businesses rent a business address and use it as their own.
The use of virtual offices has become increasingly popular over the years, especially for small companies.
While each package differs, virtual office packages usually include services such as business addresses, communication services like phone and receptionist services, and business meeting spaces.
Here are 8 considerations that business owners might have when choosing a virtual office package:
1. PRICE
One important consideration for business owners is the cost of utilising a virtual office.
The price of renting a virtual office package can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per annum.
However, the cheapest virtual office packages sometimes include only a mailing address with an option to add on other services.
SINGAPORE – All Singaporeans aged 21 and older this year will get a one-off cash payout of between $100 and $300, depending on their income.
Parents with at least one Singaporean child aged 20 and younger this year will each receive an additional $100 in cash.
The cash payout scheme is part of a $1.6 billion Care and Support package to help families defray some of their household expenses amid the downturn.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 18) afternoon: “This year, with the economic slowdown and the uncertainities of the Covid-19 outbreak, we are mindful that many families are facing greater pressures.
“During my fellow MPs’ and my own walkabouts, people often tell us that they are worried about job security and rising expenditures.”
Those with an assessable income of up to $28,000 for the 2019 year of assessment will get $300. Those who earn between $28,001 and $100,000 get $200 and those earning over $100,000 or who own more than one property will get $100.
New York-based travel vlogger Bobby Briskey has been to a lot of places around the world. He shares his adventures on his YouTube channel and likes to do little “challenges” for his videos, like living on cheap street food in India for 24 hours and surviving on 7-Eleven meals in Japan for a day — things that aren’t that hard to pull off, really.
His latest challenge took him to Singapore, which, according to him, has the world’s best vending machines — a claim he truly believes despite spending a decent chunk of time in Tokyo, the undisputed capital of fascinating vending machines.
In a video posted last Friday (Feb 14), he shared his thoughts and genuine enthusiasm, spending 24 hours around Singapore checking out the plethora of vending machines across the island.
SINGAPORE – Help is on the way for workers and businesses impacted by the global coronavirus outbreak, with additional relief to be provided to the hard-hit tourism and transport sectors.
The Government will dedicate $4 billion this year to help stabilise Singapore’s economy and help workers and businesses tide over a looming slowdown, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced on Tuesday (Feb 18).
The Stabilisation and Support Package will provide job and cash flow support to help firms retain and retrain workers. Additional measures will be rolled out for the tourism, aviation, retail, food services and point-to-point transport services sectors, which have been directly affected by the coronavirus disease, officially named Covid-19.
JOBS SUPPORT
Mr Heng, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, said in his Budget speech that retaining jobs is the Government’s foremost concern.
“To help our workers stay employed, I will support enterprises by defraying their wage cost through two schemes,” he said.
SINGAPORE: Facebook has blocked access to the State Times Review’s (STR) page in Singapore, after it was instructed to do so on Monday (Feb 17) by the office overseeing the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA).
Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran had directed the POFMA Office to order Facebook to block Singapore users from accessing STR’s page, which has failed to comply with at least three correction directions since November last year.
Responding to queries from CNA on Tuesday, Facebook said that it was “legally compelled” to carry out the order.
“After careful review of the order, Facebook has determined that we are legally compelled to restrict access to this page in Singapore,” a Facebook spokesman told CNA.
It also said that it believes “orders like this are disproportionate” and “contradict the Government’s claim that POFMA would not be used as a censorship tool”.
“We’ve repeatedly highlighted this law’s potential for overreach and we’re deeply concerned about the precedent this sets for the stifling of freedom of expression in Singapore,” said the spokesperson.
Checks by CNA showed the page was inaccessible to Singapore users on Tuesday, but available in other cities.
The State Times Review’s (STR) Facebook page was blocked in Singapore on Tuesday Feb 18, 2020.
The States Times Review Facebook page was available outside of Singapore on Feb 18, 2020.
A Declared Online Location is defined by the POFMA Office as “online locations that have carried three or more different online falsehoods that are the subject of active directions issued by POFMA Office”.
DOLs are required to carry a notice warning readers to “exercise caution and do additional fact-checking” when accessing the sites for information.
The STR Facebook page, which is owned by Alex Tan, has not carried the required notice.
STR said on Tuesday it was shutting down to meet the Government’s compliance requirements, with The Real Singapore taking over its Facebook page and website.
Its Facebook page name was changed to @THEREALSINGAPORE on Tuesday.
SYDNEY – Singapore Airlines Ltd will temporarily cut flights across its global network in the three months to May, it said on Tuesday, as a coronavirus epidemic hits demand for services to the Asian city state, as well as through the key transit hub.
Key affected destinations include Frankfurt, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Paris, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo, the airline said on its website.
“Singapore Airlines and SilkAir will temporarily reduce services across our network due to weak demand as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak,” the carrier said.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and make further adjustments as necessary.”
It declined to say what percentage of capacity it had cut in response to a query from Reuters, citing commercial sensitivity.
The cuts follow major reductions already announced in services to mainland China and Hong Kong. In the Dec. quarter, flights to mainland China made up 11 per cent of capacity for the airline, and more than that for budget arm Scoot.
