Fresh tremors felt in S'pore

Oct 1, 2009

Fresh tremors felt in S'pore

FRESH tremors were reported in several parts of Singapore for a second day on Thursday morning.

Police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force received more than 60 calls from the public reporting these tremors, shortly after a second earthquake with a 6.8-magnitude hit southern Sumatra, about 480 km southwest from Singapore, at 9.52 am.

Areas that felt the tremors include the Central Business District (CBD), Beach Road, Teban Gardens, Pasir Panjang, Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, Yishun, Sengkang, Punggol, Sims Drive, Marine Parade, Tanjong Rhu, Woodlands, Choa Chu Kang and Jurong West.

No reports of injury nor law and order concerns have been received so far, said police.

On Wednesday, tremors were felt in 234 buildings in Singapore on Wednesday evening soon after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Sumatra Coast.

They included 187 Housing Board flats, 16 private residential buildings and 31 commercial buildings, said police in an update early on Thursday morning.

Engineers from the HDB and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) inspected all the affected buildings and found them to be structurally safe and sound.

Thousands of Singaporeans had a fright when they felt tremors in the wake of the strong earthquake on Wednesday at about 6.15pm.

Scores of office workers and residents streamed out of some buildings in areas such as Raffles Place and Changi, and tremors were felt islandwide from Kembangan to Woodlands.

Some 170 calls about the tremors were also made to the authorities.

In a update on the tremors on Thursday, police assured the public that there is no cause for alarm.

'Buildings in Singapore are designed to established building codes and are sufficiently robust to withstand tremors caused by distant earthquakes,' said a police statement.

Should cracks or other structural defects develop, residents or occupants in public housing estates should call the Housing Board's Essential Maintenance Service Unit's 24-Hour Hotline at 6275 5555 or 6354 3333 while those in private buildings should call the Building & Construction Authority at 6325 7191 or 6325 7393.

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Tremors hit S'pore, KL

Oct 1, 2009

INDONESIAN QUAKE

By Teh Joo Lin in Singapore & Elizabeth Looi in Kuala Lumpur
		Office workers gather outside their building after experiencing an earthquake tremor in downtown KL. -- PHOTO: AP

IT WAS a regular day at work, until accountant Kelvin Ng's office began to sway.

The 26-year-old ran nine flights down from his Bencoolen Street building to the road outside.

'It was so bad it gave my friend a headache,' he said.

He was among thousands in Singapore and Malaysia who had a fright when they felt tremors in the wake of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck off Padang, Sumatra.

For up to two minutes, people in Singapore reported seeing curtains sway, grilles rattle and chairs shake in buildings from Choa Chu Kang to Changi.

Workers and residents streamed out of some buildings in areas such as Raffles Place and Changi, and officers from the Building and Construction Authority were out inspecting buildings last night.

The authorities received some 170 calls about the tremors, but no casualties were reported.

The police said there was no cause for alarm.

'Buildings in Singapore are designed to established building codes and are sufficiently robust to withstand tremors caused by distant earthquakes,' said a spokesman.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said last night that it is monitoring the situation, but so far there were no reports of Singaporeans affected by the earthquake.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times

joolin@sph.com.sg

elizlooi@sph.com.sg

New IT Security Authority to safeguard Singapore against cyber threats

Channel NewsAsia - Thursday, October 1

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New IT Security Authority to safeguard Singapore against cyber threats

SINGAPORE: Singapore is taking steps to harden its national IT infrastructure against cyber—terrorism and cyber—espionage.

A new unit called the Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority or SITSA will be set up from October 1 to oversee efforts to safeguard the nation against infocomm technology security threats.

SITSA will be a division within the Internal Security Department (ISD) and be headed by Mr Ng Hoo Ming. This is the first time ISD is revealing the name of its officer.

It’s a volatile landscape out there for the IT industry. Industry figures show nearly 12 million computers were hacked by cyber criminals last year and close to 23,500 new infected web pages are discovered daily.

Michelle Dennedy, chief governance office, Sun Microsystems Inc, said: "The same distributive computing which facilitates commerce can also damage it. There are different types of attacks and attackers.

“It is easier than ever to be an anonymous person trying to cause havoc. At the same time we need to be strategic in planning what are our vulnerabilities"

For Singapore, Minister K.Shanmugam said the country needs to adopt a more proactive strategy to anticipate and neutralise emerging threats.

Mr Shanmugam said: "We have decided there needs to be a national level organisation that really looks at it holistically and brings all the different public sector areas together and focus intensely on key infrastructure like power, water supplies, communication. These are areas prone to attack.

“The people in charge of promoting these services will definitely look at security but it is good to have an agency that is solely focused on the security aspects and looks across sectors."

The new government agency will also enhance Singapore’s planning, preparedness and response against any major external cyber attack.

The Singapore government will not be working alone in the area of enhancing the national IT infrastructure security.

It will also be working closely with the private sector in organising cyber security briefings and exercises so that both sides can exchange ideas to further enhance the cyber defence capabilities.

Mr Shanmugam continued: "Let’s take a scenario where you actually have an attack. Many of the infrastructure are controlled by the private sector and you will need the private sector professionals to come and help. You can’t be doing it for the first time when you are under attack.

“You need to bring them earlier, prepare your lines, harden the targets and then make sure you are able to react in case an attack comes about. So we need to work together."

So from next year, the Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority will conduct cyber security exercises on a regular basis so that gaps can be identified and the response to recover from such attacks can be improved. — CNA/vm http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20090930/tap-285-new-security-authority-safeguard-231650b.html

Major safety lapses

Sep 22, 2009

Major safety lapses

MOM: Bosses take large share of blame in half of 200 workplace deaths

By Jermyn Chow
		Top management, including chief executive officers and directors, failed to enforce proper safety plans before starting work and neglected to train workers to deal competently with their equipment. -- ST PHOTO: ABDUL AZIZ HUSSIN

HALF of the 200 workplace fatalities occurring over the past three years were caused by a failure to follow safety plans, a failure tacitly endorsed by bosses.

In these cases, management paid only lip service to safety, said Mr Silas Sng, who heads the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Inspectorate.

'While companies have some sort of safety plan in place, many do not follow through or enforce the plan,' he said in response to queries from The Straits Times. 'This condones and tacitly allows workers to take shortcuts and risks.'

Such unsafe acts included safety supervisors failing to equip workers with proper safety gear or inspecting sites properly before work started.

Top management, including chief executive officers and directors, failed to enforce proper safety plans before starting work and neglected to train workers to deal competently with their equipment.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.

jermync@sph.com.sg