SINGAPORE: Seven people have been arrested in connection with a series of unauthorised attempts to change registered residential addresses through an Immigration & Checkpoints Authority's (ICA) e-service, the police said on Tuesday (Jan 14). The arrests come after ICA revealed on Jan 11 that perpetrators were exploiting stolen or compromised Singpass accounts to fraudulently alter the addresses of unsuspecting victims. More than 60 officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and Police Intelligence Department were involved in island-wide operations between Jan 11 and Jan 13 to conduct the arrests. The seven suspects - six men and one woman aged between 19 and 32 - are believed to be responsible for at least 30 cases of attempted unauthorised address changes. Six of them are being investigated for potentially violating the Computer Misuse Act 1993, facing charges of unlawful disclosure of access codes. One suspect is facing potential charges under the same act for unlawfully disclosing a Singpass password or access code. Some of the suspects are also being investigated by ICA for alleged breaches of Regulation 20(a) of the National Registration Regulations. The offences carry jail sentences of up to three years, fines, or both. SERVICE PARTIALLY RESTORED In a separate news release, ICA said it has resumed the electronic change of address (eCOA) service for the "Myself" module, with additional security places in place. The "Myself and my family members" and "Others" modules remain suspended.  Those accessing the “Myself” module will now be required to additionally perform face verification when logging in using their Singpass account. As of Monday, investigations have uncovered 87 attempts to change residential addresses, with 69 changes successfully executed, said ICA. Of the 69 changes, the perpetrators had gained control of 17 Singpass accounts. After the suspension of the electronic service, ICA said it tried to contact the 87 affected individuals to inform them of the attempted change to their registered address, while house visits were made to those who were uncontactable by phone. "For all the 87 cases, regardless of whether the attempt to change their address was successful, ICA is facilitating a replacement of their identity card, and restoring their registered address in our database to their legitimate one," said ICA. "The Singpass accounts linked to all the 87 cases have been reset or suspended." ICA said it is also working with GovTech to help the 17 users of the compromised Singpass accounts. "In this regard, the Police and GovTech have been contacting relevant government agencies and private sector services (for example, banks and telcos) which the perpetrators might have accessed using the compromised Singpass accounts, to ensure that appropriate remedial or preventive actions are taken," said the authority.   ICA's investigations began in September last year after receiving reports from members of the public who encountered unauthorised changes to their residential addresses. By last December, ICA’s investigations showed that the perpetrators had used stolen or compromised Singpass accounts to change the residential addresses of the victims through the "Others" option - which allows the change of address by a proxy. Investigations to identify the other perpetrators are still ongoing, said the police. Source: CNA/rc(ac)

A resident got a shock when a facade at her lift lobby "collapsed suddenly" on Jan. 13 afternoon. The incident happened at Block 506 Woodlands Drive 14.     The resident, who wanted to be known as Annie, told Mothership that she heard "loud falling sounds" at 12:30pm. She said: "It gave me a shock!" The photos that Annie sent showed debris all over the lift lobby. A facade that was erected between two lifts had collapsed, exposing a brick wall behind.   Annie said the incident left her shaken, adding that she was concerned about safety in the estate: "Luckily no one was around at that time. Many school children usually take the lifts in the afternoon." According to Annie, two cleaners from the town council cleared the debris and pulled down the rest of the damaged facade. She pointed out that they were using just their hands without any equipment. The Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council told Mothership that the affected area was cordoned off for safety and the delaminated tiles were removed immediately:  

SINGAPORE – To upgrade the way it manages the 9,500 lane-kilometres of road under its charge, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is calling for ideas to measure and predict road maintenance needs. Separately, it is also calling for proposals to improve the way roads are designed and constructed. At present, it uses a mix of video analytics and artificial intelligence to spot defects on road surfaces. The use of such technologies has improved productivity and detection accuracy, LTA said in a document posted to its website calling for solutions.   LTA uses three types of specialised equipment to assess road performance today. A laser crack measurement system evaluates surface roughness, ruts (or tracks left by wheels), surface texture and cracks; a grip tester assesses skid resistance; and a falling weight deflectometer looks at the structural integrity of the roads. The authority said in mid-December 2024 that its current approach has adequately guided maintenance work and planning, but recent advancements such as in technology, ways to assess road performance, and automated data-collection techniques may enable it to expand the use of data to improve the management of road pavements. LTA wants to index the data gathered during inspections to create a Singapore Road Pavement Performance System, which will be hosted on a digital platform.   The system should be able to assess the conditions of roads and recommend maintenance levels and actions needed to achieve minimum road performance levels, and set out the actions needed to deal with road defects.   It is also seeking the deployment of cost-effective and reliable equipment as alternatives to those now in use. The expectation is for the proposed equipment and methods to measure the health of the roads to yield cost and productivity savings of at least 20 per cent.   To derive the index, data such as the extent of road conditions, and the size and severity of defects, is to be taken into account. The proposals LTA is seeking may also entail mooting road performance attributes such as riding quality and road safety, the approach to deriving weightings for each attribute, and the factors that contribute to the weightings based on their severity and impact on parties such as road users. The data collected should allow LTA to predict, prioritise, plan and project how to maintain the roads through a road deterioration model, and allow it to determine the costs involved over the next three to five years. The deterioration model will take into consideration factors such as traffic loads, environmental conditions and material properties, LTA said. Finally, the proposal should include the design and development of a tool with an intuitive dashboard that will aid in long-term decision-making for road maintenance and management.   In response to queries from The Straits Times on the potential benefits of such a solution to motorists, LTA said: “A viable solution will enable a data-driven approach to maintenance, improving the ability to efficiently prioritise and plan road repairs for a safer and more reliable road network.” When asked about the current inspection regime, LTA said expressways are inspected weekly, major roads every two weeks, and minor roads every eight weeks to spot surface defects. The cost of checking road conditions depends on factors such as the type of road, total length of the road and the technologies used. At present, the cost of collecting data on skid resistance, rut depth and roughness of the roads comes to about $500,000 a year, said LTA. Separately, the authority is seeking proposals for alternatives to current construction designs and methods for roads and bus bays. It wants solutions that can meet challenges such as more extreme weather conditions and the different kinds of stress placed on road surfaces by different traffic loads in the future, including electric vehicles, which tend to be heavier. Instead of coasting or freewheeling, many electric vehicles have a feature that applies braking force when the driver takes his foot off the accelerator to recover electric energy. This contributes towards degrading the road surface. For roads and expressways, LTA wants to save at least 20 per cent of costs during the lifespan of the roads built with the new alternatives, which can be during construction or maintenance. For road junctions and bus bays, the challenge is the disruption to road users during construction, which takes between five and seven days to complete. LTA wants to be able to reduce the time needed to pave a road junction or bus bay by at least half without changing the structural properties of the current junctions and bus bays. LTA told ST that expressways are typically resurfaced every seven to 10 years, major roads every 10 to 15 years, and minor roads every 15 to 25 years. In addition, localised repair works are done whenever necessary.

Does this mean that I need a mask?  

@sTiCkY