Security News
The Singapore division of Starbucks, the popular American coffeehouse chain, has admitted that it suffered a data breach incident impacting over 219,000 of its customers. This breach concerns only customers who have used the Starbucks mobile app to make orders or used the chain's online store to purchase goods from one of the 125 shops the chain operates in Singapore.
What's notable about this campaign is its heavy reliance on Telegram bots and chats to coordinate operations and create phishing and scam pages. When a potential victim contacts the seller through the online storefront, the Classiscam operator deceives the target into continuing the chat on a third-party messaging service like WhatsApp or Viber before sending a link to a rogue payment page to complete the transaction.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Tuesday that its cryptocurrency regulations will add measures to protect consumers, in addition to ongoing work to contain money laundering and terrorist funding. Singapore's anti-crypto rhetoric has increased in recent weeks, after Terraform Labs' "UST" stablecoin collapsed and helped to spark market uncertainty that has sent the price of many crypto assets tumbling.
In the same week that it welcomed the launch of a local center of excellence focused on crypto-inspired central bank digital currencies, Singapore's Monetary Authority has warned crypto cowboys they face a rough ride in the island nation. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund has invested in Mojaloop, and MAS chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty serves as a board advisor and the authority provides representatives to the Foundation's working group, alongside folks from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and more.
Cybersecurity service providers must for licenses to operate in Singapore, under new regulations launched by the country's Cyber Security Agency on Monday. Specifically, concerns were raised over whether service providers may aggregate or use anonymised client data for threat intelligence purposes, leading CSA to limit the scope of its license condition.
Singapore's Cyber Security Group, an agency charged with securing the nation's cyberspace, has uncovered four critical flaws in code from network software company Riverbed. The vulnerable application is SteelCentral AppInternals, formerly referred to as AppInternals Xpert, provided by Riverbed's Aternity division.
The topic earned ministerial attention after instances of attacks and scams soared recently. 7 million from 790 customers by spoofing text messages in what minister of finance Lawrence Wong referred to as "By far the most serious phishing scam seen" in Singapore.
A widespread phishing operation targeting Southeast Asia's second-largest bank - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation - has prompted the Monetary Authority of Singapore to introduce regulations for internet banking that include use of an SMS Sender ID registry. Singapore banks have two weeks to remove clickable links in text messages or e-mails sent to retail customers.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore says it is considering supervisory action against Southeast Asia's second largest bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, which was criticised for its incident response to a widespread phishing scheme across the island nation. "Monetary Authority Singapore takes a serious view of the recent phishing scams involving OCBC Bank. They have significantly impacted several customers. OCBC has acknowledged that its incident response and customer service should have been better. MAS has been following up with the bank on these and broader issues relating to the incident," said MAS deputy managing director Ms Ho Hern Shin in a statement to The Register.
Singapore and the UK signed three memorandums of understanding this week, hoping to strengthen digital connectivity between the two island nations. In a canned statement, Singapore's Minister for Communications and Information, Josephine Teo, said the agreement would "Further strengthen the links between Singapore and the UK in digital trade facilitation, digital identities and cybersecurity."