11/13/2013

Ragtag cyber army behind bars

With The Messiah likely to be put away to safety and a few ragtag bloggers and vandals also in custody, it looks like this episode of Anonymous hackers is over. The slight concern is that The Messiah had claimed that ‘he was part of the international network of hackers and actitivists called Anonymous.’ If this claim is true, there is a high probability that his comrades in overseas would want to give him some support and the game is not over.
 

In view of this, the govt’s cyber warrior would still have to be on duty round the clock for a while until this claim by The Messiah is proven to be null and void.
Is The Messiah bluffing? Is there an Anonymous Collective out there with its worldwide supporting cast of hackers waiting to hack into our govt’s websites again? We will have to wait to see what is real.
 

Game over or advance to Level 2?

Malaysia has highest English Language proficiency in the entire region

‘(6 Nov) – Malaysia has the highest English language proficiency level in the entire Asian region, according to a latest research by Swiss-based international education company EF Education First (EF).’
 

The above is quoted from an article in TRE. OK, you can start laughing. We all know that it is a joke right? Now who are we laughing at, Sin City or Malaysia or the Swiss based international company EF Education First. Whoever you are laughing at, it is good to see such highly claimed agency making such a farcical report.
 

With no disrespect, we know that the education system in Malaysia is Bahasa based and Sinkie education is English based. And Malaysia is more proficient in the English Language than Sin? Hehehehheh. OK OK, give them the benefit of the doubt that they are far away. It is OK, we understand. Angmoh tua kee, must be right. We may invite this organization and all its foreign talents here to set up office for such a brilliant find. Issue them with EP immediately, no need to question their talents that are so remarkable.
 

Or we won’t as they have disputed our proficiency in the English Language. They are insulting us whoa!

PS. Maybe it is the way how some of us speak English that are found wanting.

Time to flee the property market

The winds of change are always blowing. This time it has come to take the foreign property speculators away. The sharp rise in property prices over the last ten years was contributed mainly by two factors. One, a stubborn and foolish decision not to build, and two, an even more stubborn decision to let more foreigners in to buy up whatever properties that were left. It was thought to be a good thing, at least for those hoarding a lot of properties, other than the developers. Some smell self interests.
 

After 7 measures to cool the market and with the last one raising the cost of foreign speculators, it is starting to bite. Boon Wan had disclosed in Parliament yesterday that foreign interest in local properties had cooled. From 1,400 units sold per quarter, it had fallen to 330 units per quarter. The foreigners are starting to flee the property market.
 

The other factor of not building has also been reversed with a projection of an over supply situation in the next few years after the ramping exercise. The factors contributing to the rise have been reversed. The fall in property prices is only a matter of time and how much will it fall. The other question is how much will the govt allow it to fall and at what level will it be sustainable or ‘affordable’ with a new definition?
 

Should the buyers of properties start to hold back or start to sell before the impending fall? The dumb explanation that it is all market forces is falling flat on its face. It is all about good governance and about bad governance, about managing for inflation and about managing for sustainability.
 

Where would the property market head to? What would be the new explanation of a rising or falling property market?

11/12/2013

They got The Messiah!

This piece of police work is simply amazing and only deserves to be commended. James Raj was charged in court this morning as The Messiah that hacked into the several high profile sites recently, including those of City Harvest and Sun Ho’s site. Details of the court proceeding are available at the TRE. I just quoted some parts here for your info.
 

‘Mr Raj is accused of committing the offence in Malaysia from the Dorchester Apartments at Jalan Sri Hartamas in Kuala Lumpur on 28 October 2013 at about 1.35pm. He was tracked down with the help of Malaysian police.
 

He is said to have accessed the content management system of AMKTC and modified the contents by adding the image of a Guy Fawkes mask to the website (‘AMK Town Council falls victim to ‘The Messiah’‘)…
 

“I have been to various sites and seen how they take the initiative to secure their systems. You have a brain & you have money. You had a choice. Don’t blame external factors (Anonymous) for this hack. The Messiah ”….
 

Mr Raj is alleged to have also hacked the websites of The Straits Times, PAP Community Foundation and City Harvest Church’s co-founder and singer Sun Ho. 

James may face further charges later after the police have completed their investigations.
Separately, the police have in custody 5 other suspects who are assisting in investigations into the recent hacking of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Istana websites. It is understood that the 3 suspects involved in the hacking of the PMO website are family members, while the other 2 in the Istana case are Facebook friends. The men are aged 17 to 45 years.’
 

It looks like the Police with the cooperation of the Malaysian counterparts have the whole gang in the net. Just wondering if the ST Online that was down for maintenance was hacked this morning. If so, then some must still be out there. If not, then the IT crews on 24 hours duty could take a break and stand down.
 

A flash in the pan?

ST online down on maintenance

The bad news, there is a hacker out there threatening to hack govt websites. The good news, the GDP will be up by a little notch with so many websites now on maintenance after maintenance. The maintenance cost to upgrade, to harden the sites, to buy better software and hardware, to put teams of IT technicians on duty round the clock for at least until the threat is over, will generate a lot of economic activities. And there is also a lot of people running around ghost chasing hoping to catch the ghost with a name, The Messiah, all cost money.
 

Just heard that the ST online is also down on maintenance. There must be at least 50 or more systems down on maintenance or already up running. All these works were generated by a mask appearing on the internet. So far only ST online, the PMO office and the Istana have acknowledged their sites being defaced with intruders planting a smiling image of a mask man while the one at the Istana was that of a naughty old woman.
 

If only some of these sites were hacked you can imagine the amount of work and cost needed to take care of the sites, to get all the data back to normal, to correct all the data corrupted or lost, and to get the system up running. All of a sudden there is this heightened activity and business opportunities for so many people.
 

There is a new kind of buzz in the economy. Hope the buzz will be limited to just maintenance and nothing more. Or would someone be quietly smiling that the bonus will be bigger and hoping that more hacking would take place?