How bad is cyber attack?

'In her recent speech regarding Cyber Risk Management Project’s ‘Bashe Report’ Launch on January 29, Elean Chin, division head of Monetary Authority of Singapore, cited that in Asia, cyber-attacks are disproportionately higher compared to other regions....

Earlier reports claimed that the Asia Pacific had the highest number of unfortunate incidents regarding security issues in the first half of 2018.

Nearly 40% of global cybersecurity activities and 30% of breached records were reported worldwide. In terms of financial losses, Asia lost US$1.75 trillion in 2017 or about 7% of the regional GDP caused by cyber attacks.

In a report released by the Cyber Risk Management (CyRiM) project, a well-planned global cyber attack can be initiated through a simple sending of an email that could bring an economic loss between $85 billion and $193 billion. The report was co-authored by Lloyd’s of London, Aon and other CyRiM partners....' Source Channel News Asia

The quantum of damages at US$1.75 trillion lost in Asia alone is staggering. How much was lost from Singapore corporations? None or cannot tell?

These attacks are likely to come from external sources and all the defensive and protective actions and measures are to put up firewalls and mechanism to stop them from getting in. In a way this is like our NSmen, all trained to defend an external threat but oblivious to the Trojan Horse already in the city state in the form of 2 million foreigners with many engaged in top level IT jobs, guarding our IT systems. How precarious is this? No, the stupidity has no cure disease does not see any threat from so many foreigners dominating and in charge of our IT systems.

All it takes is one of these foreigners to turn rogue and a bank can have all its money in the system emptied within minutes, gone into thin air, in the cloud. While so much effort have been spent to block external threat, the most serious threat is from within, the people hired to do the job, to guard and protect our systems and data. with several thousands of them in the job, in the industry, how high is the chance of a few of them attacking our systems and data?

Trust them? Is this the way to continue to go on with so much trust in unknown foreigners in charge of our systems and data? It was Sri Lankan national bank that was hit. Now it is Bangladeshi national bank. When would be the turn of our national bank?

Would not happen?

PS. The Bashe report seeks to put emphasis on the cost and negative effects of any serious cyber attack. The report noted, in case of a major attack that came from Asia, for the next 24 hours, data installed in 30 million electronic devices could be encrypted. In turn, this could impact over 600,000 companies globally or about US$19 billion in financial losses.

The USA, the land of freedom of expression, religion, etc etc

Professor Megan Neely of Duke University had to step down after an improper and rude email chastising Chinese students in the university for speaking Chinese loudly in the student lounge and study areas. Wow, in the land of the free, when there is freedom of expression, freedom to practice different culture and religion and lifestyle, speaking Chinese is not allowed in a university? What kind of shit is this? The latent and hidden and suppressed racism in the white Americans cannot be concealed for long. Their racist attitude and hatred for the coloured people would just slip out every now and then.
 
According to a Reuter report in thenewpaper, ‘In her email, Prof Neely said two faculty members wanted to identify the students who had been speaking in Chinese so they could “could remember them” if they ever interviewed for ann internship or asked to work with them for a master’s project.’ This is the free America, the non racist America in practice, the real America where racism is deep and guarded but often came off unguarded at the wrong moment when politically correct stance was forgotten.
 
But they should not feel alone. In Singapore, in Nanyang Technological University, the seed of Chinese language and culture, a university with its root in Chinese culture from the days when the Chinese community chipped in to fund the predecessor, Nantah University, there was an incident in the University’s foodcourt when the stalls were told that signages must be in English, Chinese words not allowed. When news broke out they claimed that it was a miscommunication and not sure anyone was punished like Prof Neely. Prof Neely stepped down as director of graduate studies but would continue to teach.
 
Duke University should not take to heart that it happened in a white country when Chinese students were from far away and it was normal for Chinese to be victimized and discriminated under American laws. It happened in Singapore, a Chinese majority little country when Chinese is one of the 4 official languages. And it also happened in a university here with Chinese roots and origins. Can you beat that?
 
Duke University should be comforted for making this slip like walking around with the pants unzipped. Everyone would forget this event as soon as it started. They have no interest in respecting the Chinese in the land of the free when they used to get free Chinese labour to work in the railroads.

Singapore's failed systems

Top of the list is the broken CPF system where the people saved as much as 37% of their monthly income, at one time 50%, but cannot afford to retire. And everyone pretending not to see the cause of the disappearing money from the savers and the system is now tweaked for the people to save into their retirement fund for as long as they live even if they are 100 years old. And the perception is that it is easy to put in but very difficult to take out because they alleged that all Singaporeans, Ah Kongs and Ah Mahs would want to splurge their money in Batam and Bintang for sex tours. As they said, a white lie, told long enough, some people would believe in it. In this island of daft, all would believe in it to the extent that many daft resigned to the fate that their CPF savings are no longer their money.

The Home Ownership system where the people were told that they were owners of 99 year lease public housing and that the value of their flats would only go up, an asset for retirement. Now every one of the believers is in shock that it was a big lie. They are not owners but tenants on 99 year lease and the value of the flats would become zero at the end of the lease. There go their assets in smokes.

This is not all. They used to build enough flats that the waiting time was only a few months until some ass, probably wanted to create the impression of very high demand to drive up prices with less supply turned getting a flat a nightmare, having to wait for years. And they still think this is the right thing to do when housing is a basic need and public housing is to serve this purpose.

The Education system is also a failure as the country could not produce talent and needs to replace the locals with third world talents from cheap village universities and graduates from degree mills or with fake degrees. The situation is so bad that ministers even tell the people not to waste time with university education in one of the most expensive education system that ended up with degrees that cannot be eaten or to find decent jobs.

The public transport system, the MRT, once the pride of the nation, now struggling to pass a day without breakdowns. And yes, it got so bad that they have to look for foreigners working in poor and badly run train systems to work here and to help to maintain the broken down system.

The snail pace of the SMRT can only be matched by the really snail pace of the postal service when mails used to arrive in a day or two now could take weeks, months or not arriving at all.My credit card was sent on 2 Feb and still has yet to arrive, probably lost or in the rubbish bin.

The shipping system, once the life line of the country, now sold to foreign owners. Singapore, one of the largest port in the world, now does not own a shipping line and at the mercy of ship operators that can divert their ships away from Singapore port.

The stock market that once was a thriving market providing employment for tens of thousands of people is now dying and waiting to meet its makers.

And there is the very wasteful car population scheme that killed cars that are 10 years old and still in good running condition.

Dunno what to say about the Ministry of Health. People say can die but cannot fall sick as they will die of shock after seeing the medical bills. And the frequent breaches of health security including protection of health records and personal data.

Sovereign funds that brag about making millions and millions but not showing its accounts and leaving the people in doubt as to its real performance, only told to believe in the profit numbers they claimed to have achieved. Are they broken and also failed systems? Cannot tell, no need to tell, trust them.

Compulsory health insurance schemes that collected millions and billions but paying peanuts when needed.

Finally, not the least, a bankrupt political system that pays millions to politicians but getting only mediocre quality candidates and mediocre performance. The only thing good about the political system is that it makes every politician rich and millionaires.

High time China uses its economic clout

Two of the 5 eyes countries are not given cold shoulder by China and trade deals had been cancelled and no new deals would take place for as long as China pleases. China used to be the number trading partner of Australia, the biggest importer of Australia raw material as well as providing hundreds of thousands of fee paying students to Australian universities. In addition, China has been throwing money at Australian properties, even wanting to invest and develop Australian ports. All these have come to nought. There is a cold freeze in the air. China has stopped buying Australian raw material and farm produce, not buying Austrailian properties, not sending its students and tourists to Australia.

The end result, the Australian economy is tanking. The mines and farms and tourist agencies are folding and stop hiring. It is best for China to keep this little USA in the cold for as long as needed until it wakes up from the new reality that it is really a very small nation with 25 million people.

This small country needs the Chinese market for its products. China does not need Australia and can find raw material from other parts of the world, in Russia, Africa and Latin America. Well done China, for whacking this little American doggie and put it in its place.

The other American doggie is none other than Canada. China is also giving it the same treatment after the silly and disastrous arrest of an innocent Chinese citizen. As far as this country is concerned, no deal. And this country is in the same predicament as Australia, unproductive people needing the big Chinese market to keep its economy alive. Now it is heading towards recession.

To the many small countries, especially the white countries in Europe, China needs only to deal with a couple in the way it dealt with Australia and Canada, cancel all trading activities with them or reduce to a bare minimum. Poland, Italy are two good candidates to be shut out of the China market. What they wanted to sell to China can be bought from other European countries. There is no need for Italian wine or cars. There is no need for the farm produce of Poland. Tell them no deal, go somewhere else to peddle their products.

China must be bold in dealing with little USAs to wake up their ideas. Only then would these little brats behave themselves. China has nothing to lose to cut off a handful of such European countries, even half of western Europe and not affecting much on its own economy. But these little economies would go belly up in less than a year if they have no access to the Chinese market. The falling value of Apple is a glaring example of what it would be like when Chinese customers boycotted Apple products.

In the case of Australia, Canada, and very likely Poland and Italy, when everything is prevented from entering the Chinese market, you can imagine how their economies would suffer, and how their people would suffer.

Go China, just do it, selectively on a few carefully chosen little USAs, especially the naughty ones. the cocky ones, and the stupid ones like Canada and Australia. This is China's best weapon to cane the brats and would be very effective. Shut them out of the Chinese market. The pain is immediate.

China, what are you waiting for?

China ‘theft of jobs and wealth’?

This is what Trump and his war hawks have been harping everyday and the western media would print them in glee. China is the demon, stealing jobs and wealth from the Americans, including stealing their technology. As they said, if you keep repeating a lie over and over again, many innocent and unthinking readers would believe in the lie. The bigger the lie, like the moon landing, the easier it is to believe.
 
Who is or are the biggest thieves in the world? Heard of colonization? Heard of war of conquest? The native Americans lost their continent to the Europeans, now calling themselves Americans and ruling the continent of North America. The native Americans not only lost their country but also their lives, with only a handful surviving today after tens of millions were slaughtered by the invading white Europeans.
 
The Europeans robbed the whole world of their wealth when they invaded them and colonized them. They claimed to own every country in every continent. Not robbers?
 
They invaded China and ransacked the palace, robbed China of all the wealth and treasures they could and bankrupted China for nearly two centuries. All the wealth in Europe was loot stolen from the colonies, with bloodshed.
 
Today Trump and his murderers in Washington got the cheek to shout robbers and thieves? Look at the mirror. Trump’s ancestry and many in the Washington were descendants of white supremacists, killing the niggers, lynching them on the trees, chained them for life, using them as free labour in the land where everything is ‘free’, stolen or robbed from the native Americans.
 
How many of you would want to believe that China is stealing from the Americans, especially jobs, wealth and technology? Did the Americans forget the agreements for exchange of students and technology signed by Carter and China? This is quoted from Wikipedia, ‘Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping's January 1979 visit to Washington initiated a series of important, high-level exchanges which continued until the spring of 1989. This resulted in many bilateral agreements, especially in the fields of scientific, technological, and cultural interchange, as well as trade relations. Since early 1979, the United States and the PRC have initiated hundreds of joint research projects and cooperative programs under the Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology, the largest bilateral program.’ Theft?
 
Did the Americans forget that they moved their dirty factories to exploit on China’s cheap labour? Even Apple is setting up factories in China to sell iphones to the Americans and the Chinese earn their keeps working for Apple with very low pay. The jobs lost were willingly given to China. The technologies were exchanged for the right to manufacture and sell in China, fair deal.
 
The money earned by China was not robbed from the Americans like they robbed the native Americans, the Red Indians, and the way they robbed China of its nation’s wealth. The Chinese earned them by sweat and tear. The technology transfer was agreed upon by both countries/companies operating in China, without a gun pointing at their heads.
 
Today, when many Chinese technologies are leading edge and the Americans could not even catch up but dare to accuse China of stealing from their backward and outdated technology! Huawei stealing American technology when Huawei is the number One technology company in the world in 5G? How could a world leading company be stealing from backward companies that don’t have the technology? China is far more advanced than the Americans in many fields of science and technology today.
 
By shouting theft does not make one superior in technology. When you are behind, you are behind, no amount of pretense and allegations could change the truth. Try to catch up with China, if unable, create more hoaxes like landing on the moon and keep spreading the myth and lie that China is stealing American technology.
 
We will try to believe you, after some heavy drinking or under the influence of drugs. A thief is always a thief. Look into the mirror!

The Americans have also been shouting about democracy, human rights, right for nation to live their own lives, peace, but they have been the worst violators of every one of these claims. Conduct regime change, wars, support dictators, wanton killings of the innocent Arabs and Muslims, Guantanamo, Al Ghraib etc etc.