A ransomware attack on the US unit of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) disrupted some trades in the US Treasury market on Thursday (Nov 9) but market sources said the impact seemed to be limited. ICBC Financial Services said in a statement a ransomware attack resulted in disruptionContinue Reading
The potential for a US-China olive branch moment will tantalize global markets over the next 10 days.
The setting is San Francisco where, first, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. That rarified exchange today and tomorrow sets the stage for Xi Jinping’s arrival in the city for the November 14-17 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
There, the hope is that Xi and US President Joe Biden meet on November 15 to re-establish president-to-president level discussions. To be sure, no one expects big breakthroughs. That’s why Beijing and Washington are looking “to intentionally keep that bar low,” says economist Jude Blanchette at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
Yet the meeting itself would be a tonic for Asian economies caught in the middle as the two superpowers parry and thrust on a range of touchy issues. In fact, Xi’s scheduled dinner meeting with American corporate chieftains could prove to be more pivotal for bilateral relations.
The dinner meeting will be a rare opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party leader to reassure top US CEOs that Asia’s biggest economy is still open for business and that actions his lieutenants are taking now will morph economic headwinds into tailwinds in short order.
The speed with which capital has been fleeing China suggests that Xi’s efforts to communicate that Beijing is in control of its myriad challenges are not getting through. In recent months, Xi and Premier Li Qiang have rolled out a variety of policies to stabilize a cratering property market and weak demand.
Global investors, though, aren’t getting that memo as new threats emerge atop of old. In September, investment capital outflows from China saw their biggest net decline in nearly eight years; outflows hit nearly US$12 billion in the third quarter.
This is the first time on record that foreign investment into China went negative, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. That speaks to the sharp deterioration in China’s perceived economic prospects and a continued collapse in confidence in its state-led model under Xi’s leadership.
There’s confusion in international circles, too, about Xi’s commitment to giving the private sector and market forces “decisive” roles in Beijing’s decision-making. That 2012 pledge was first called into question in 2015 when Xi’s government intervened aggressively to stabilize Shanghai stocks.
Questions only increased after Xi began cracking down hard on mainland tech platforms in late 2020, starting with Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group. The inquisition rapidly widened to Baidu, Didi Global, JD.com, Tencent and other top internet companies. The clampdown had some Wall Street banks debating whether China might be “uninvestable.”
In the months since Li took charge of reforms in March, the government has repeatedly promised to treat private sector companies on par with state-owned enterprises and increase outreach efforts with tech firm founders.
Yet a perceived lack of follow-through is drawing complaints about “promise fatigue,” including from the head of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.
As President Jens Eskelund told Bloomberg: the chamber has “not yet seen signs of willingness to implement structural reforms needed to address the fundamental challenges facing China and allow foreign and private companies to deliver on their potential for supporting the Chinese economy.”
The ongoing decoupling, de-risking and de-globalization trends pitting Xi’s Beijing against Biden’s Washington hardly help at a moment when US bond yields are at 17-year highs.
“Capital outflow pressures may persist in light of the unfavorable interest rate differentials,” notes economist Maggie Wei at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Morgan Stanley strategist Laura Wang adds that foreign outflows from China’s A-share market is in “an unprecedented stage.” Between August 7 to October 19 alone, cumulative outflows topped $22 billion. That is the largest in the history of Stock Connect, which links mainland and Hong Kong bourses.
All this raises the stakes for Xi’s dinner with top CEOs. It’s an ideal opportunity to reboot Beijing’s faltering effort to win back the foreign investment crowd. And to slow the exodus of companies diversifying supply chains away from China to reduce risks.
Goal one is allaying concerns that China’s economy is heading into a dismal 2024. Many investors worry the International Monetary Fund is looking through rose-colored glasses when it projects China will grow 4.6% in 2023 amid property sector weakness and subdued external demand for Chinese exports.
China, for example, slipped back into deflation in October. The consumer price index fell 0.2% year on year after a flat reading in September.
What’s more, “there are signs that activity has started to slow entering the fourth quarter,” says economist Carlos Casanova at Union Bancaire Privée. “That means that policymakers need to remain on high alert and continue to support the economic recovery.”
To date, he added, the People’s Bank of China “has been reluctant to deploy stimulus measures in 2023, against the backdrop of higher US rates and a strong dollar. However, we believe that another 10 basis-point rate cut and an additional 25 basis-point reserve requirement ratio cut will be necessary in December.”
Even more important, Xi must convince executives that big supply-side disruption is coming. Bold steps to repair the property sector, increase productivity, level playing fields for entrepreneurs, recalibrate growth engines from investment to domestic demand and create bigger social safety nets are needed to head off growing “Japanification” comparisons.
Beijing is quick to dismiss talk of a Japan-like funk. “China’s current situation is vastly different from what Japan used to be in,” says Liu Shijin, a member of the PBOC’s monetary policy committee. Claims that China is falling into a “balance-sheet recession” like Japan in the 1990s are off-base, Liu claims.
China, Liu argues, still has policy scope to pivot to an innovation and consumption-led growth model that enables the government to gain control of its debt trajectory.
Trouble is, the external sector might be less hospitable to Xi’s hopes to recalibrate growth engines — reducing the rapid economic growth rates needed to win party-wide support to push through sweeping and disruptive reforms.
As the IMF notes in its latest assessment: “Over the medium term, growth is projected to gradually decline to about 3.5% by 2028 amid headwinds from weak productivity and population aging.” The IMF’s economists also warn that financial stability risks are elevated and increasing “as financial institutions have lower capital buffers and growing asset quality risks.”
Geopolitical tensions loom large, too. A September survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai cited Sino-US hostility as a major reason why foreign companies are looking for exit ramps from China to other Asian economies. In its own survey, UBS Group cited India, Japan and Vietnam as “top destinations” that are “gaining more attention.”
The good news is that Xi’s inner circle seems to be turning away from the “wolf warrior” antics of recent years.
Recent sit-downs, and those to come, “have sent out positive signals and raised the expectations of the international community on the improvement of China-US relations,” Vice President Han Zheng told Bloomberg.
“A stable and sound China-US relationship is the common expectation of all sectors in our two countries and the international community as a whole. We’re ready to strengthen communication and dialogue with the US at all levels,” Han said.
Team Biden, too, seems keen to lower the bilateral temperature. Of course, the White House’s actions must speak louder than words. Generally, those actions tend to be focused on Chinese containment.
Last month, Biden’s trade representatives again narrowed the types of semiconductors that US companies can sell to China. In doing so, it closed loopholes in existing policies with particular emphasis on limiting China’s ability to compete in supercomputing and artificial intelligence.
“The upshot is that China’s ability to reach the technological frontier in the development of large-scale AI models will be hampered by US export controls,” says Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics. This could have even bigger implications, he adds, since “we think AI has the potential to be a game-changer for productivity growth over the next couple decades.”
But the more important signal Xi must send to CEOs in San Francisco is that his team is getting under the Chinese economy’s hood. One law of economic gravity that Xi’s team has tried to beat these last 10 years is the idea that a developing nation must build credible and trusted markets before trillions of dollars of outside capital arrive.
In China’s case, this means increasing transparency, making local government officials more accountable, prodding companies to raise their governance games, crafting reliable surveillance mechanisms like credit rating companies and strengthening the financial architecture before the world shows up.
Too often, Xiconomics has China trying to flip the script, believing it can build a world-class financial system after waves of foreign capital arrive. And the Xi era’s efforts to communicate that a financial Big Bang is afoot continue to get lost in translation in boardrooms from New York to London to Tokyo.
The sense that Xi’s China tends to over-promise and under-deliver financial upgrade-wise was first seen in the summer of 2015, back when Shanghai shares plunged by one-third in three weeks. Beijing’s response was to treat the symptoms of the market rout, not the underlying causes.
Since then, Xi stepped up the pace of winning Chinese stocks places in top global indices, from MSCI for stocks to FTSE-Russell for bonds. Yet increases in access to yuan-denominated assets has often outpaced the reforms needed to prepare China Inc for global prime time.
Whether China can win back investors’ trust is an open question. As Chinese stocks are reminding us – as well as a yuan down 5.6% this year – there are certain laws of gravity that still apply to economies transitioning from state-driven and export-led growth to economies centered more on services, innovation and domestic consumption.
In San Francisco next week, Xi has an ideal opportunity to convince top Western decision-makers that they can indeed believe the hype about China’s prospects for 2023 and beyond. Investors of all stripes love to hear a great growth opportunity story. China has one, but Xi needs to prove he’s genuine about the narrative.
William Pesek is on X, formerly Twitter, at @WilliamPesek
According to Larry Merizalde, China CEO of South African manufacturer Aspen, “we’ve seen some disturbance in our ability to implement some clinical application actions and in the ability of our health representatives to attend hospitals.” AstraZeneca was likewise “facing challenges from the medical anti-corruption investigations in China, reducing AZN’s exposureContinue Reading
shabby Graphics” Mum, could I sing for a little while longer?”
In the American capital of Delhi, six-year-old Vanraj’s family Pakhi Khanna is preparing herself to deal with that chorus for the upcoming couple of days. The 38-year-old has reduced her father’s outside fun from two hours to 30 minutes, his classes have been moved online this month, and football coaching has been discontinued.
Numerous students in Delhi, including Vanraj, have had their schedules suddenly altered as a result of the alarmingly high levels of air pollution. Delhi’s Air Quality Index ( AQI ), which measures the amount of PM 2.5 or fine particulate matter in the air, has consistently exceeded the 450 mark over the past few days, which is almost 10 times the acceptable threshold. Lung specialists claim that breathing this dangerous atmosphere is comparable to smoking 25 to 30 cigarettes per day.
Gopal Rai, the culture minister of Delhi, has requested that all schools close until Friday and that only high school students attend online classes because the situation is so dire. This isn’t the first instance of air contamination interfering with education in Delhi; it has been occurring every spring for the past four to five years.
The number of times that schools are closed as a result of weather contamination has actually been rising. According to Shariq Ahmad, director of a government school in Kalkaji, south Delhi, classes are now disrupted for at least five to six days straight.
Parents and professionals are worried about how these sudden breaks in daily routines and understanding will affect kids, especially since schedules had just started to return to normal following the Covid – 19 epidemic.
As usual, points are more challenging for people with limited resources.
Deepa, a domestic helper who only goes by one brand, claims that her sons don’t benefit from the online learning design. Both Prasanna, 10, and Abhishek, 12, who are in the sixth and five grades, attend public schools.
The university has been encouraging kids to study at home since Friday, and professors have been sending pictures of their completed worksheets via email. However, Deepa’s home doesn’t have a computer; instead, the kids can only get their schoolwork when their mother, who cleans and cooks in many homes, comes home in the afternoon and hands them her phone.
She claims that without assistance from teachers, her children find it difficult to understand the instructions.
According to Deepa,” I worry that this will have an impact on how well they perform on the upcoming test.” She continues,” I would like it if my kids attended school while wearing faces.”
However, Delhi’s pollution rates are so large that not even masks provide much defense.
For their three-year-old daughter Mira, Anant Mehra and his wife have totally discontinued outside playtime. On the one hand, they’re happy that her daycare classes have moved online, but they also complain that it’s frustrating to force a three-year-old to spend hours in front of the computer.
Mr. Mehra adds that Mira is becoming uneasy and angry due to being at home. She misses her friends and the play-based education she receives in college, he claims. Her being at home has an effect on their work day as well because he and his family, who have a cross working design, have planned their deadline around Mira’s hospital time.
For universities, students, or parents, immediately ending classes like this is simply not sustainable, according to Mr. Mehra. ” The government needs to act quickly to reduce the pollutants.”
Mira and Vanraj are aware that they are being prevented from going outside because of” bad air ,” but neither of them fully comprehends the risks associated with breathing toxic air. They frequently struggle with air pollutants, which prevents them from having joy, playing, and making friends.
Ms. Khanna says,” As a parent, I want to preserve my child safe, but I also don’t want startle him or make him constantly worry about the weather he’s breathing.” Therefore, when I explain to him why he is unable to do certain things, I must strike a delicate harmony.
Team members are also being impacted by the gap. The abrupt declaration of online classes, according to one English and environmental studies teacher who teaches students between the ages of seven and ten, throws her ideas off course.
She is forced to choose online training with shorter, easier-to-understand topics, and then write curriculum for her kids to practice at home. But she claims that once real classes resume, she will need to re-teach these lessons because many kids find it difficult to learn online.
The teacher, who didn’t want to be named, said,” This puts a lot of stress on us because we also have to consider about finishing the course.”
People like Shreya Nidhi, who serves as a guardian for her 14-year-old brother Umang, claim that she is dissatisfied with the state and the way that pollution obstructs her son’s academic progress each year. She had prevented him from going to school, even though it meant skipping tests, prior to the president’s order to close schools.
Umang was unhappy and frustrated by this because he was concerned about how lacking exams may impact his academic year.
But his health is more important to me. We must consider these drastic measures to protect our loved ones because the government isn’t doing anything to stop air pollution, she claims.
shabby Graphics” Mum, could I sing for a little while longer?”
That is the chorus that Pakhi Khanna, the family of six-year-old Vanraj, is preparing herself to deal with over the course of the next few days in the Indian capital of Delhi. The 38-year-old has reduced her father’s outside fun from two hours to 30 minutes, his online classes this week, and his football coaching.
Vanraj is one of the thousands of students in Delhi whose schedules have been suddenly altered as a result of air pollution reaching alarming rates. Delhi’s Air Quality Index ( AQI ), which gauges the amount of PM 2.5 or fine particulate matter in the air, has consistently surpassed the 450 mark over the past few days, which is almost ten times the acceptable threshold. Lung experts claim that breathing this poisonous atmosphere is comparable to smoking 25 to 30 cigarettes per day.
Gopal Rai, the culture minister of Delhi, has requested that all schools close until Friday and that only high school students attend online classes due to the dire circumstances. This isn’t the first instance of air contamination interfering with education in Delhi; it has been occurring every spring for the past four to five years.
The number of times that schools are closed as a result of air pollution has actually been rising. According to Shariq Ahmad, director of a federal school in Kalkaji, south Delhi, classes are now disrupted for at least five to six days straight.
Parents and professionals are worried about how these sudden breaks in daily routines and understanding will affect kids, especially since schedules had just started to return to normal following the Covid – 19 crisis.
As usual, people with limited resources have it harder.
The virtual learning unit doesn’t work for Deepa’s sons, a domestic help who only goes by one name. Both Prasanna, 10, and Abhishek, 12, who are in the sixth and second grades, attend a government institution.
The university has been encouraging kids to study at home since Friday, and teachers have been sending pictures of their completed worksheets via email. However, Deepa’s community doesn’t have a computer, so the kids can only use it when their mom, who cleans and cooks in many homes, comes home in the afternoon and gives them her phone.
Without assistance from instructors, she claims, her children find it difficult to comprehend the training.
According to Deepa,” I worry that this will impact their performance in the examination next fortnight.” She continues,” I would like it if my kids attended school while wearing faces.”
However, Delhi’s pollution rates are so large that not even masks provide much defense.
For their three-year-old daughter, Mira, Anant Mehra and his family have totally stopped going outside to play. On the one hand, they’re happy that her daycare classes have moved online, but they also complain that it’s frustrating to force a three-year-old to spend hours in front of the system.
Mira is agitated and anxious, according to Mr. Mehra, who is also elderly. She misses her friends and the play-based education she receives in college, he claims. He and his family, who have a cross working arrangement, have planned their days around Mira’s nursery time, so her presence at home also affects their workday.
According to Mr. Mehra, immediately ending courses like this is simply not responsible for colleges, students, or parents. ” The government needs to act quickly to reduce the pollutants.”
Mira and Vanraj are aware that” bad air” is keeping them from going outside, but neither of them totally comprehends the risks associated with breathing toxic air. They experience persistent heat waste as a barrier that prevents them from playing, making friends, and having fun.
Ms. Khanna says,” As a parent, I want to preserve my child safe, but I also don’t want startle him or make him constantly worry about the weather he’s breathing.” Therefore, when I explain to him why he is unable to do certain things, I must strike a delicate harmony.
Team members are also being impacted by the gap. The abrupt declaration of online classes, according to one English and environmental studies teacher who teaches students between the ages of seven and ten, throws her intentions off course.
She must immediately choose online lessons on shorter, easier-to-understand subjects, and therefore write coursework for her kids to practice at home. But she claims that once real classes resume, she will need to re-teach these lessons because many kids find online learning difficult.
The teacher, who didn’t want to be named, said,” This puts a lot of stress on us because we also have to consider about finishing the course.”
People like Shreya Nidhi, who looks after her 14-year-old brother Umang, claim to be dissatisfied with the state and how waste obstructs her son’s education on a yearly basis. She had prevented him from going to school even though it meant skipping test before the government ordered schools to be closed.
Umang was unhappy and frustrated by this because he was concerned about the impact of missing test on his academic year.
But his health is more important to me. We must consider these drastic measures to protect our loved ones because the government isn’t doing anything to stop air pollutants, she claims.
The specific problems that caused the system healing delays on October 14 did not come up during the annual exercises that both banks conducted to check the recuperation of their IT systems at their backup data centers, according to Mr. Tan.
DBS would not be permitted to make non-essential That changes or invest in new business initiatives for six months, according to MAS ‘ announcement last year.
Experts informed CNA that they were not aware of any future DBS acquisition plans. According to Mr. Thilan Wickramasinghe, head of Singapore studies at Maybank, DBS is concentrating on integrating other companies into the bank and probably has a” limited appetite” for additional mergers and acquisitions.
MAS added that DBS may continue to apply a ratio of 1.8 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational threat and keep the size of its tree and ATM networks for the time being.
In May, it was first told to do so. At that time, the ratio of 1.8 days resulted in more regulatory money, or income that must be set apart as a pilot, of about S$ 1.6 billion( US$ 1.2 billion ).
A company’s ability to invest may be constrained by a higher capital requirement.
SINGAPORE: On November 1, a distributed denial of service( DDoS ) removed the websites of Singapore’s public healthcare organizations, resulting in an extended outage. & nbsp,
Services that needed internet connectivity, such as websites, emails, and staff productivity tools, were unavailable during the disruption, despite the fact that essential healthcare services were untouched. & nbsp,
There was no evidence to suggest that medical data and internal networks had been compromised, according to a statement from Singaporean health tech firm Synapxe, which supports the operations of 46 people medical institutions.
The DDoS attacks are also happening, and there may still be sporadic outages of online service, it added. & nbsp,
According to experts, it’s crucial to maintain essential services unhindered even in the face of cybercrime because public health care systems are so crucial.
Additionally, they emphasized how crucial it is to separate inside healthcare systems from online and web-based services. & nbsp,
A distributed denial of service( DDoS ) attack, one of the most frequent cyberattacks, is a malicious attempt to obstruct an online service or site by inundating it with unusually high volumes of data traffic. & nbsp,
According to Atreyi Kankanhalli of the National University of Singapore,” Cybercriminals overburden a network with so much traffic that it cannot function( communicate ) as it usually would.” & nbsp,
This would impede customers, or requests, from reputable people, according to the Provost’s Chair Professor in the Department of Information Systems and Analytics at the School of Computing at NUS. Users would then be unable to load content on & nbsp. In addition, & nbsp,
Prof. Kankanhalli & nbsp used the example of a group of people swarming the shop’s entrance door, making it difficult for legitimate customers to enter. & nbsp,
According to the & nbsp, Singapore University of Social Sciences’ ( SUSS ) & nfspp, Ng Boon Yuen, a DDoS attack coordinates multiple attack streams so that numerous devices are simultaneously attacking the target system.
These products are frequently those that have been compromised by malware and are” remotely controlled” by the intruder, according to the senior teacher of the business program at SUSS ‘ School of Business. & nbsp,
According to cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, a DDoS attack is normally planned in three steps. & nbsp,
The first step is typically & nbsp, reconnaissance to find a specific target, according to its Field Chief Security Officer of Japan and Asia Pacific Ian Lim. & nbsp,
The second step is” weaponization ,” in which the attacker creates or rents a bot network to carry out the attack. Launching the strike and possibly adapting to the defenses to withstand it is the next step, according to Mr. Lim.
The purpose or goal of the harm may determine the next steps, he continued. & nbsp,
Sluggish application performance, protracted inability to access websites or system files, high processor and memory usage, frequent disconnections from wireless or wired internet connections, and an increase in spam emails are all potential indicators of a DDoS attack, according to the Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore( CSA ).
According to Synapxe, it has access to services that prevent unusual internet traffic spikes before they reach the people healthcare system. & nbsp,
Synapxe added in its statement that routers are in place to ensure that only legitimate traffic enters the network even after the limiting service has cleared the traffic. & nbsp,
But, on November 1st, a strange increase in network traffic that was picked up around 9.15 am was able to get around the obstructing service and destroy the firewalls. & nbsp,
DDoS preventing services have power limits, Prof. Kankanhalli noted. & nbsp,
” Attacks bigger than 2 terabits per second( Tbps ) have happened, and attack sizes are getting bigger.” Massive attacks you overwhelm firewalls and preventing services.
According to Mr. Lim, the danger environment for DDoS has changed, allowing adversaries to launch attacks with more volume and speed.
Any internet-facing system, such as a router or modem, has bandwidth limitations that can be overextended in network-based DDoS. The application is overcome and can no longer listen to reasonable calls in an application-based assault, according to Mr. Lim. & nbsp,
According to the CSA, one of the 11 industries with important details infrastructure is healthcare. & nbsp,
According to Prof. Kankanhalli, it is a crucial company that makes it an appealing destination for online thieves looking to cause trouble. & nbsp,
” The adversaries may have both financial and activist motivations for causing break.” For instance, take information to buy or demand ransom from the company.
According to Mr. Lim, due to the status of the organization and the media attention it may garner, big institutions are frequently the goal of such attacks. According to & nbsp,” Hacktivism” or” hacking for a cause” is frequently the reason behind DDoS attacks that are not financially advantageous. & nbsp,
DDoS could also be used as a distraction strategy to conceal another invasion occurring elsewhere in the organization, Mr. Lim continued.
Professionals concurred that if critical operating techniques in a hospital are available via the internet, they will be vulnerable to DDoS attacks. & nbsp,
According to Nanyang Business School’s( NBS ) Goh Kim Huat, the majority of hospitals have separate systems for managing their internal healthcare systems and hosting online web pages.
According to Prof. Goh, a member of NBS ‘ Division of Information Technology and Operations Management, internal healthcare systems have files like electronic medical records that are” mission critical, confidential, time-sensitive, and need to be continuously available for patient safety.”
For separation is currently being practiced in our health care system. Mission-critical healthcare systems are typically compartmentalized and equipped with redundancy( backup ).
According to Prof. Kankanhalli,” Service connecting to the internet have many benefits, but likewise immediately increase risks.” However, it is not feasible to forbid all of these services; rather, you must implement since many safeguards as you can.
The question is whether it is essential to maintain the availability of medical institution websites, Dr. Ng said, even if there was no data breach and operations were essentially unaffected. She stated that the accessibility of websites that offer e-services to the general public may be crucial. & nbsp,
Even though websites for health care organizations are primarily there to inform the public, a disturbance can lead to various issues, according to Dr. Ng. & nbsp,
For instance, a user would use the hospital’s telephone number for public inquiries if they were unable to locate the contact information for the professional clinic or ward on the website. According to Dr. Ng, a high amount of enquiries could destroy the call center.
A spokesperson for NUHS( National University Health System ) added that their call center and emails were even partially absent in light of the recent disturbance.
According to the top teacher, when various( or all ) channels of information and communication are impacted, those who are in need of assistance does become concerned or even anxious. & nbsp,
According to online safety company Cloudfare, businesses can use specially created network equipment or a cloud-based protection service to alleviate the threat. & nbsp,
DDoS mitigation, which involves using a cloud-based provider across many stages, is the process of properly shielding cybernet or server from DDOS attacks.
A website must first be able to distinguish between an attack and a large volume of regular traffic in order to react by deftly removing harmful bot traffic while absorbing the remaining traffic.
A good network may route traffic effectively and look for patterns like specific attacks coming from specific nations or improper use of specific protocols. & nbsp,
According to Mr. Lim, the organization would be able to bring in experts shortly to stop or divert these attacks if the DDoS attack was detected early. & nbsp,
” A thorough examination of the attack will also enable the preparation and application of a suitable course of reduction.” Remember that the intruder might be anticipating your defenses and changing the direction of their harm.
” To totally address the continuing attack, constant attention is required because this is a dynamic situation. To increase response time, it is essential to have a team( internal or partners ) prepared to respond to DDoS incidents and exercise drills.
To prevent unauthorized access and takeover of your network devices and routers, the CSA advises using strong passwords and enabling two-factor authentication,( 2FA ) as an additional layer of security.
Additionally, it suggests & nbsp putting security measures in place at the network’s perimeter, such as firewalls between internal and external connectivity points.
One of the most typical types of attacks is DDoS episodes.
According to the CSA and Infocomm Media Development Authority( IMDA ), DDoS attacks on telco infrastructure in 2016 crippled StarHub’s broadband network twice in three days. & nbsp,
Therefore, infected subscribers’ Internet-connected products in their homes were taken over and used in the cyberattacks. The devices’ owners, thieves, were able to deliver visitors to their intended destination. & nbsp,
SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has barred DBS from any new business acquisitions for six months, in response to the bank’s multiple service disruptions this year.
DBS, Singapore’s largest lender, is also required to pause non-essential IT changes for six months.
“This is to ensure that the bank dedicates the needed resources and attention to strengthen its technology risk management systems and controls,” MAS announced in a media release on Wednesday (Nov 1).
The bank will not be allowed to reduce the size of its branch and ATM networks in Singapore for now.
“This is to ensure there are adequate alternative channels for its customers in the event of further disruptions while the bank works to enhance the operational resilience of its digital channels,” said MAS.
“This direction will be in force until MAS is satisfied with the progress of DBS Bank’s remediation plan.”
DBS and Citibank’s digital banking and payment services were disrupted for hours on Oct 14 due to a technical issue with the cooling system at a data centre operated by Equinix.
DBS automated teller machines (ATMs) were also affected, prompting Singapore’s largest lender to reopen branches on a Saturday afternoon to assist customers.
MAS had ordered DBS and Citibank to conduct “a thorough investigation”, noting that the banks were not able to fully recover their systems within the required timeframe.
Any unscheduled downtime for a critical service affecting a bank’s operations or service to customers must not exceed four hours within any 12-month period.
Banks are required to have backup data centres and systems in place, MAS noted on Oct 19 in response to the outage.
The Oct 14 outage was among several DBS service disruptions this year.
In March, a day-long service outage hit online banking and payment platforms such as PayLah!, prompting MAS to issue a strongly-worded statement saying the bank had “fallen short” of expectations due to the “unacceptable” disruption.
In May, digital banking services and ATMs were down due to “human error in coding the programme that was used for system maintenance”.
In the wake of the two successive service disruptions in the space of just over a month, MAS imposed additional capital requirements on DBS.
Following the March incident, MAS had also directed DBS Bank to engage an independent third party to conduct a comprehensive review of the effectiveness and adequacy of the people, processes and technology supporting its digital banking services.
MAS noted on Wednesday that shortcomings were identified in system resilience, incident management, change management, as well as technology risk governance and oversight.
Following the independent review, DBS had set out a roadmap to address the shortcomings.
“The roadmap is being implemented in phases, with the changes affecting its system architecture design taking more time to complete,” MAS said on Wednesday.
“MAS has reviewed DBS Bank’s remediation plan under the roadmap and is satisfied with its scope and the planned measures to improve system resilience,” it added.
“In line with MAS’ expectations, DBS Bank will hold senior management accountable for the lapses and the board will enhance its governance approach to oversee the implementation of the roadmap.”
MAS said it will review the progress made by DBS on its remediation efforts at the end of six months.
“MAS may extend the duration of the measures, vary the additional capital requirement currently imposed, or take further actions at that point,” it added.
“In the meantime, MAS will retain the multiplier of 1.8 times to DBS Bank’s risk-weighted assets for operational risk, which was imposed after the March and May 2023 incidents.”
The regulator said DBS will take up to 24 months to put in place the planned structural changes to improve the resilience of its digital banking services.
“In the meantime, it is possible that disruptions may still occur. In such situations, MAS expects DBS Bank to promptly recover its services and communicate to its customers in a clear and timely manner,” it added.
MAS previously hit the bank with capital requirements after its digital banking services were disrupted for two days in November 2021. At the time, MAS also ordered the bank to appoint an independent expert to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the incident.
When Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits China this week, he will be able to celebrate a figure that previous Australian leaders could only dream of. Over the past year, China has imported more than AU$200 billion (US$127 billion) worth of Australian goods and services.
In August 2023, the Australian Bureau of Statistics put the annual value of goods exports at AU$194 billion and services at AU$9.5 billion. In 2016, the last time an Australian prime minister visited China, the combined figure was less than half the current level at AU$95.6 billion.
Besides buoyant commodity prices and the emergence of new areas of trade such as lithium, exports have reached a record high because the disruptive measures imposed by Beijing in 2020, affecting barley, coal, lobsters and more, have been steadily removed.
Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell says that under the Albanese government’s watch, by September 2023 AU$20 billion of “trade impediments” had been reduced to just AU$2.5 billion.
There is one narrative in Australia, particularly popular among those who championed former prime minister Scott Morrison’s government’s abrasive approach to China relations, that this positive outcome resulted from firm Australian resistance. It suggests that eventually, Beijing had no choice but to “capitulate” under Australian pressure. This narrative is both misleading and self-serving.
It is true that by the end of 2021 Beijing had recognized that its campaign of trade disruption was causing more harm to itself than it was shifting Canberra’s foreign policy positions.
Upon his arrival in January 2022, the new Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said he was on a “noble mission” to work with “the Australian government and friends in all sectors … to jointly push the China–Australia relations back to the right track.”
But Australian resolve provides only a partial explanation of the removal of the disruptive trade measures. What triggered Beijing’s actions in 2020 was not a particular policy by the Morrison government, but rather its diplomatic posturing.
After the early Australian moves that disadvantaged China, such as Australia leading the world in banning Chinese technology companies from participating in its 5G rollout in August 2018, and accusations then that Beijing was threatening Australian trade, there was little sign of it.
It was only in early 2020 when the Morrison government began aping the political attacks launched by former US President Donald Trump against Beijing over the Covid-19 pandemic that Beijing took steps against Australian trade.
Beijing wasn’t alone in being taken aback by Australia’s political assault. On Morrison’s call for international health inspectors to be given powers akin to “weapons inspectors.”
Martin Parkinson, the usually reserved and then recently retired secretary of the Australian Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, remarked, “what whizz kid … dreamed up those talking points, what did they think they were going to achieve with that?”
When the Albanese government restored “calm and consistent” diplomacy, little wonder that ministerial visits resumed and trade disruptions began to ease.
A critical ingredient in the restoration of trade ties has been the multilateral trading system, overseen by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
This system, which supports open and competitive global markets, blunted the effects of Beijing’s bans on Australia by facilitating the redirection of exports of Australian coal, barley and other commodities, previously destined for China, elsewhere.
The WTO also provided a neutral forum in which Canberra and Beijing could engage in their disputes relating to barley and wine.
After Washington drove the WTO’s regular appeals body into dysfunction in December 2019, Australia and China both stuck to a rules-based process by joining the workaround to the WTO dispute settlement process, the Multi-Party Interim Arrangement. This meant that neither would appeal an unfavorable WTO panel finding “into the void.”
In the case of barley, the timeline is telling. The WTO panel circulated its final report on Australian barley exports to both parties on March 15 – reportedly in Australia’s favor.
On April 10, Canberra and Beijing announced a deal had been struck in which Beijing would undertake an “expedited review” of the tariffs it had imposed. This led to Chinese tariffs being lifted on August 4.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong calculates that Australia “would not have been able to get this outcome without working through the WTO.” Later that month, Trade Minister Farrell farewelled the first shipment of 55,000 tonnes of Australian barley, at a healthy price premium, destined for China.
October brought the news that the same process was in train for wine. On the informal measures still affecting lobsters and beef, Farrell says that warming relations and the experience of the barley episode mean that Australians can “be very confident … that we can resolve all of those outstanding issues.”
Australia’s resistance to Beijing’s attempts at economic coercion was undoubtedly right. But in celebrating the latest trade numbers, when in Beijing Albanese might propose a toast to professional diplomacy and a shared commitment to the multilateral trading system, including an independent, rules-based resolution of disputes. Recommitment to both is the right way forward.
James Laurenceson is Professor and Director at the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.
This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
Uranium enrichment and the nuclear fuel industry make up a globally integrated complex concentrated in the hands of a few key players. A geopolitically-driven divorce is on the horizon, however.
At the outset of the invasion of Ukraine last year, US Senator John Barrasso, a Republican of Wyoming, led an effort to ban Russian-origin uranium and nuclear products following the West’s break with the fossil fuel industries that had been filling the Kremlin’s war chest.
The bill stalled, but it highlighted America’s reliance on Russian nuclear imports and the need for a comprehensive supply chain rework. When countries are already scrambling to secure supply for nationally critical materials like rare earths or semiconductors, doing so for nuclear fuel – which powers one-fifth of US electricity generation– is not a bold proposition.
Rosatom, Russia’s sprawling state-owned champion, dominates chokepoints in the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle – 38% of global uranium conversion and 46% of enrichment. This not only gives Moscow leverage over downstream “critical infrastructure” abroad but supports its wider energy statecraft agenda.
Since 2007, nuclear reactor exports have become a key channel in Russia’s foreign influence strategy, accounting for about half of the 53 units under construction worldwide.
Additionally, leading US small-modular reactor companies like TerraPower and X-energy require high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for their designs, and that is only commercially available from Russia.
The National Nuclear Security Administration has the ability to downblend weapons-grade material into HALEU for civil use but conflicting national security directives necessitate that it be considered a temporary solution at best.
This year, Barrasso is making more headway. The “Nuclear Fuel Security Initiative” (NFSI) breezed through the Senate as an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act rather than as a stand-alone bill.
This would allow Congress more discretionary authority to ensure that disruptions in the nuclear fuel supply chain neither (1) impact existing commercial reactor operations, nor (2) impede the development of advanced nuclear reactors.
A companion bill banning Russian uranium (with allowances through 2027) is working its way through the House.
Opening the HALEU bottleneck is an acute priority, but the imperative should also address the broader, energy security implications of growing Russian and Chinese influence over Kazakhstan and its industry behemoth, Kazatomprom – the world’s largest uranium miner.
A disruption to the West would equate to a crisis. Nearly all producers are fully booked for years, and soaring uranium spot prices hint that warehoused sources may be depleted.
To avoid sleepwalking into a larger dilemma brought on by a captive Kazakh uranium industry, policymakers not only should empower the Department of Energy to reshore enrichment but also should firm up the broader nuclear fuel supply chain with trusted partners.
Once known as the steady “floor” for global supply, Kazatomprom has been beset by geopolitical risks, and is on its fourth CEO in two years.
First, its primary transport route through Russia was impacted by international sanctions. Now, the bubbling Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict threatens to complicate the Trans-Caspian Route it had promoted as an alternate solution.
With access to Europe constricted and US influence in Central Asia waning, Kazakhstan has little choice but to be more accommodating towards its two assertive neighbors, who are already (by far) its most important partners in trade.
In May, Rosatom took a bite out of Kazatomprom, acquiring a 49% stake in its prized Budenovskoye-6 and -7 uranium deposits. Several executives quit as a result, fueling speculation that it was a “backdoor deal” imposed by Astana in cooperation with Moscow.
Once developed, this uranium mine complex is expected to become the world’s largest, capable of supporting Rosatom’s downstream dominance in conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication for many years to come.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, there were signs of Kazakhstani president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev distancing himself from Vladimir Putin, but the opposite has instead played out. The two have met in person at least a dozen times since, with energy cooperation a frequent focus.
Beijing has also factored Kazatomprom into its energy strategy. China is undergoing a massive buildout of new nuclear power plants, on track to become the world’s top producer by 2030. In his first post-Covid trip abroad, Xi Jinping visited Tokayev to lay the groundwork for deeper bilateral collaboration – with energy, again, a priority area.
Since then, the China National Nuclear Corporation has secured a major long-term uranium supply contract in excess of 50% of Kazatomprom’s total book value.
Additionally, the China General Nuclear Power Corporation has started receiving nuclear fuel assemblies from the Ulba Metallurgical Plant on the Kazakh-Chinese border – a joint venture slated to provide 200 tons of nuclear fuel each year until 2041.
Signs of deepening Russia-China cooperation over nuclear fuel may further fan this hotspot of security concerns. In March, the US House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces was briefed on reports of Rosatom supplying highly enriched uranium to fast breeder reactors in China, a well-established pathway for weapons of mass destruction.
While there is no indication that Kazakhstan collaborates with Russia or China toward nuclear arms, evidence of an increasingly captive uranium industry presents a glaring liability for energy security in the US and Europe.
All this is coming to a head as demand for uranium is returning in force. With grids around the globe struggling to replace coal reliably with the variable generation of wind and solar, nuclear power is gaining recognition as a necessary component in the clean energy transition at large.
Nuclear plant developers from China, France, South Korea and the US are presently vying for business across Africa, Asia and the Middle East – eager to catch up with Rosatom’s lead.
And the most ominous driver of supply chain bifurcation may be the resuming buildup of nuclear weapons between great powers. China has been expanding its arsenal for years, and with Russia’s recent suspension of the “New START” arms control treaty, the US is pressured to modernize its own capabilities.
America should restore long-term nuclear fuel security before a crisis puts critical infrastructure at risk. The Nuclear Fuel Security Initiative can be maximized by (1) stockpiling uranium as disruption insurance, (2) reshoring critical bottlenecks like HALEU manufacturing and enrichment and (3) proactively friend-shoring the upstream stages of the supply chain among trusted allies.
The first two are already off the ground, with a strategic uranium reserve recently established and Ohio-based Centrus Energy beginning enrichment operations just this month.
But they require greater urgency. The reserve’s current inventory would cover only nine days of US commercial demand, and Centrus has a long way to go in scaling up to create a meaningful shift away from Rosatom.
The United States is fortunate that Canada and Australia are the number 2 and number 4 suppliers of uranium after Kazakhstan. However, the problem is that ramping up enough production to quit Kazatomprom would take many years, given the mining sector’s challenging workforce as well as lending and regulatory conditions.
Friend-shoring through policy incentives or consortium-building can accelerate this process by signaling a commitment to decoupling from the Russian nuclear industry – thereby boosting investor confidence and diverting capital otherwise flowing to marginally cheaper producers, like Namibia or Uzbekistan.
The surprising coup in Niger and its impact on France’s nuclear firm, Orano, should be lesson enough regarding dependence on states with elevated political risk for uranium supply.
Since the dual-use nature of uranium and the oligopolistic conditions of the space will never allow it to become a true commodity market, scruples over government intervention should be saved. The United States allowed Russia to maneuver into its commanding position by privatizing, then outsourcing, this critical supply chain.
Expeditiously rebuilding supply security at home and industrial capacity among allies is the first step to making a comeback in an industry that will undoubtedly remain vital within energy, technology and national security arenas for decades to come.
Brandt Kekoa Mabuni ([email protected]) is a resident WSD-Handa fellow at Pacific Forum in Honolulu.
This article was first published by Pacific Forum and is republished with permission. The article is a primer to a longer forthcoming report by the author titled “Splitting the Atom’s Supply Chain: Analysis & 3S Implications for a Disintegrating Nuclear Fuel Industry.”
