Singapore Orders Apple, Google To Prevent Government Spoofing on Messaging Platforms

An anonymous reader shares a report: Singapore's police have ordered Apple and Google to prevent the spoofing of government agencies on their messaging platforms, the home affairs ministry said on Tuesday. The order under the nation's Online Criminal Harms Act came after the police observed scams on Apple's iMessage and Google Messages purporting to be from companies such as the local postal service SingPost. While government agencies have registered with a local SMS registry so only they can send messages with the "gov.sg" name, this does not currently apply to the iMessage and Google Messages platforms.

Fix the Headline

[cusco]

I thought that Singapore was ordering them not to allow the government to send spoof messages, and thought, "How refreshing!" Nope.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Twitter used to do this with the verified badges, but then Elon started selling them and they became the mark of someone stupid enough to give him money for a blue tick.

It's not a bad idea in principle. A simple cryptographic certificate that government agencies can use to validate their messages. The hardest part will be the UI. Making sure it is clear and not easily spoofed.

Just ban

[registrations_suck]

Should be easy enough to ban .gov.sg from Messages.

Singapore - LOL

[SlashbotAgent]

Singapore has been making some interesting demands lately. First the airline fuel requirements and now this demand. They seem to think that they are much bigger than they actually are. It's pretty laughable.

 

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who just spent quite a bit of time in Singapore, I think you do not understand their position. They have a stronger and more numerous military than the rest of the SE Asian nations (almost combined). They have the largest economy in the region(yes, as a city state) They also hold significant influence over the region including ASEAN and as an english speaking gateway to the rest of east asia. In my eyes they are the strongest SE Asian nation, per capita and in total by almost every metric. I wo

Re: Singapore - LOL

[Niobe]

The largest economy is Indonesia, 3 times the GDP of Singapore. Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia & Vietnam are all comparable sizes so Singapore so I don't think it stands out for that reason. It's a standout for having hardly any land or natural resources but being a financial and trade centre.