Singapore Tightens Internet Security Laws

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=5503

November 11, 2003

Ultra-strict Singapore has passed some of the world's toughest laws 
against computer hackers and virus writers, allowing police to arrest 
suspects before they strike, official documents show.

Drawing comparisons with the island's harsh Internal Security Act that 
allows detention without trial, the revised Computer Misuse Act gives 
authorities wide-ranging powers to police the Internet.

Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, said 
the law aimed to fight "cyberterrorism," but would be used sparingly 
-- chiefly against threats to national security, essential services 
such as banking and finance, and foreign relations.

Passed on Monday, the bill allows police to take "pre-emptive action" 
based on credible information before hackers strike to protect 
computer networks from unauthorised entry.

People who hack or deface a Web site may be jailed for up to three 
years or fined up to S$10,000 ($5,800).

Singapore, a wealthy, predominantly ethnic Chinese state, hardened 
security in the aftermath of last year's Bali bomb attacks in 
neighbouring Indonesia and again this year after a car bomb exploded 
in Jakarta killing 12.

"Instead of a backpack of explosives, a terrorist can create just as 
much devastation by sending a carefully engineered packet of data into 
the computer systems which control the network for essential services, 
for example the power stations," Ho said.

Critics said the legislation echoed Singapore's Internal Security Act, 
a Draconian law written by the island's former British colonial rules 
that allows for detention without trial and was used to halt communism 
in Singapore in the 1950s.

"Indeed it sounds very much like the cyber-space equivalent of the 
Internal Security Act," said Ho Geok Choo, a member of parliament.

"How does the police cybercrime unit intend to differentiate between a 
real intent to compromise our national computer networks from those 
that are merely 'wild' talk?," she said.

Singapore authorities have detained 33 suspected Muslim militants 
associated with the Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian network of 
Islamic radicals accused of planning to blow up the U.S. embassy and 
bomb other Western targets in Singapore.

In the latest security move, police banned street parking along the 
popular Mohamed Sultan Road bar district this week.

Ho Peng Kee told parliament on Monday that security services had seen 
a big increase in the number and sophistication of hacking attempts 
and "cyberattacks."

Instances of successful hacking in Singapore, known for its high 
broadband Internet penetration rates, climbed from 10 in 2000 to 19 in 
2001 and 41 last year, he said. There were 24 cases in just the first 
half of this year.

"The number of unsuccessful attempts is probably many times more," he 
said. One network saw 6,000 hacking attempts in a three-month period, 
he added.

($1-1.735 Singapore Dollar)



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