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NFR Wizards Archive: [ISN] Singapore Telecom checks Internet cu

[ISN] Singapore Telecom checks Internet customers for 'open windows' (fwd)

Darren Reed (darrenrreed.wattle.id.au)
Fri, 30 Apr 1999 21:30:11 +1000 (EST)

> Forwarded From: William Knowles <erehwonkizmiaz.dis.org>
>
> http://straitstimes.asia1.com/one1/one1.html
>
> SINGAPORE (April 29, 1999 11:53 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
> Singapore's national telecommunications company has scanned more than
> 200,000 computers of its Internet customers without their knowledge as
> part of a plan to ward off hackers, the Straits Times reported on Friday.
>
> Singapore Telecom, which is 80 percent owned by the government, began the
> scan last month of nearly half of Singapore's Internet users to check
> whether its customers were vulnerable to hacker attacks, the report said.
>
> The scanning would continue until all accounts of its SingNet and SingTel
> Magix customers were covered, it said.
>
> "We are merely protecting the interest of our customers," the report
> quoted Singapore Telecom chief executive officer for multimedia Paul Chong
> as saying.
>
> SingNet had asked the Home Affairs Ministry's IT security unit to do the
> scan following news in March of the arrest of two boys who had hacked into
> 17 SingNet customers' accounts.
>
> Officials at Singapore Telecom were not immediately available for comment.
>
> The disclosure from Chong came after the Straits Times reported on
> Thursday that 21-year-old law student Anne Lee had complained to the
> police that someone with an account in the Home Affairs Ministry had
> hacked into her account.
>
> Chong said SingTel was being "responsible" by giving customers the
> "value-added service" of scanning their computers.
>
> On whether the law allowed such scanning without customers' consent, Chong
> said nothing illegal had taken place.
>
> He said customers were not informed of the scan so as not to alarm them.
>
> "We do not want to make a mountain out of a molehill. In the end, the scan
> might not turn up anything. If we had informed the customers, it might
> cause an alarm," Chong said.
>
> He added that "real hackers might lie low" if they knew of the scan.
>
> Chong was quoted as saying the scanning so far showed that some users were
> vulnerable and that they would be informed when the process was over.
>
> The Home Ministry was approached because it was the "expert" in the area
> -- it helped crack the case of the two teenage hackers.
>
> Chong stressed that the scan did not delve into users' computer databases,
> or amount to an illegal entry into computer accounts, the Straits Times
> reported.
>
> "There is no invasion of privacy at all. Basically, what we did was check
> if the systems had open windows through which hackers can exploit," Chong
> said.
>
> Chang Wai Leong, a SingTel director, was quoted in the report as
> describing the scan as like a "policeman patrolling in cyberspace checking
> if the "windows" of the computer system are opened."
>
> -o-
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