Briefs

The usernames and passwords of employees in several Singaporean state agencies and educational institutions were found to have been put up for sale online by hackers.

Russian cybersecurity company Group-IB ­said on March 19 that it discovered the user logins and passwords on the Dark Web over the past two years. The establishments affected include the Government Technology Agency, education and health ministries, the police, as well as the National University of Singapore.

A Smart Nation and Digital Government Group spokesperson told The Straits Times that about 50,000 government email addresses were found in the illegal data banks, but they were “either outdated or bogus”, with only 119 still in use. He said the credentials were leaked not through government systems but the use of the email addresses for personal and non-official purposes.

This data sale is the latest in a series of cybersecurity transgressions in Singapore in just 10 months. Last June, the personal data of 1.5 million patients of SingHealth, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, were stolen in the country’s worst cyberattack. Four months later, about 70 HealthHub accounts were accessed without authorisation. Then, at the beginning of this year, the data of 14,200 patients on the HIV Registry were leaked. Barely three months later, data belonging to more than 800,000 blood donors were improperly published online.

More possible pollution sites discovered in Pasir Gudang

More than 46 possible pollution dumps had been detected in Pasir Gudang using satellite data and drone footage, said Malaysia’s Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Yeo Bee Yin on March 20.

Yeo could not ascertain as yet whether the dumps were for the disposal of domestic waste or scheduled waste, the latter being the type that may be hazardous to public health and the environment. Department of Environment officers will be following up on that.

The minister said none of the sites contributed to the Sungai Kim Kim catastrophe, in which toxic chemical waste dumped into the river caused serious air pollution that resulted in thousands of people falling ill. All 111 schools in Pasir Gudang have been shut until month-end.

Malaysian authorities had on March 19 declared the clean-up of the pollution in Sungai Kim Kim complete. A total of 900 tonnes of soil and 1,500 tonnes of polluted water had been cleaned, and 5,848 patients treated since March 8. More than 900 victims had been warded, with 25 placed in the intensive care unit.

Meanwhile, Singapore authorities said the air and water quality in the Lion city remained unaffected by the latest developments.

Boeing faces criminal probe on 737 Max crashes

As Boeing grapples with the aftermath of two flight disasters involving its 737 Max planes within five months, US federal authorities are conducting a criminal probe to determine whether the company had lied to regulators about the safety of the popular aircraft model.

The probe was initiated after the first catastrophic crash, of a Lion Air B-737 Max jet soon after take-off from Jakarta on Oct 29 last year. The accident had triggered questions over whether the plane’s new ­anti-dive system was to blame.

Then on March 10, an Ethiopian Airlines B-737 Max 8 crashed near Addis Ababa.

Nearly 350 people died in the crashes. Boeing and the US regulator are now facing intense scrutiny over the plane’s avionics and how the aircraft was certified.

On March 21, Indonesian authorities held a briefing on the Lion Air crash. Various media wrote about what happened in the Lion Air cockpit, citing a person of authority who had listened to and described the information from the cockpit voice recorder. Reportedly, as the Lion Air plane started to behave erratically, the pilot handed the controls to the co-pilot and started to scour the manual for a solution, while one of the pilots was heard praying. Indonesia’s aviation regulator, however, said what had been reported were “people’s opinion” rather than the reality.

New Zealand bans assault rifles in wake of deadly attacks

New Zealand has banned military-style semi-automatics and assault rifles and will establish a nationwide buyback of the weapons as a result of the March 15 terrorist attack on two mosques that killed 50 people.

The ban takes immediate effect to prevent stockpiling of firearms while the legislation is being drafted, said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on March 21. Further changes to gun laws to tighten licensing and increase controls over ammunition will be made in the coming months.

This is in sharp contrast with the US, where gun massacres have failed to spur political action. Ardern’s announcement comes just days after the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history, when a lone gunman attacked Muslim worshippers during afternoon prayers, filming and live-streaming the act on social media. A 28-year-old Australian man has been arrested and charged with murder.

What’s next in Brexit?

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is still fighting to get her unpopular Brexit deal through Parliament. No-deal Brexit is back on the table with just days to go to avoid it. And even if the cliff edge is avoided now, another might loom three months later.

Parliament will debate Brexit options on March 25, and the European Union has promised a three-month extension if May gets her deal passed in Parliament.

If May’s deal is again rejected, she has a choice of a no-deal, or asking the bloc for an extension. The EU will probably insist on a long extension to give time for a rewrite of the strategy, or there could be a short extension for both sides to prepare for no-deal.

Brexit is due to happen on March 29. If no extension is granted, the UK tumbles into legal limbo, and trade could be severely affected with the pound plunging.