More often than not, we’ve heard Singaporeans being described as “Kiasi” (afraid to die), but the Trump-Kim summit might have just unveiled this set of kiasi personality amongst the Angmohs.
More than 2,500 local and foreign journalists who were in Singapore to cover the historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday were distributed with goodie bags which includes the micro USB fan as seen below.
Free micro USB fan leh, not bad right?
But apparently some smart alec decided that the mini USB fan given out were USB-powered fans that can carry malware which created a frenzy amongst the journalists covering the summit on Twitter.
So, um, summit journalists. Do not plug this in. Do not keep it. Drop it in a public trash can or send it to your friendly neighborhood security researcher. Call any computer science department and donate it for a class exercise. I’d be glad to take one off your hands, btw. https://t.co/vz8xjUIjVz
— Barton Gellman (@bartongellman) June 11, 2018
RE-UPPING FOR THE MORNING CROWD IN SINGAPORE.
DON’T PLUG THE FAN INTO YOUR COMPUTER UNLESS YOU WOULD LIKE TO EXPERIENCE SOME CUSTOMIZED MALWARE. https://t.co/y8QUxeUG8r
— Jeremy Bowers (@jeremybowers) June 11, 2018
Journalists at #TrumpKimSummit got this USB fan.
PLEASE PLEASE please don’t plug it into a computer. Have an infosec pro (@wmckinley @runasand?) examine it first. https://t.co/gJ50EtW8Dl
— Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) June 11, 2018
uhhh maybe don’t plug this into your computer https://t.co/VpJYAROjES
— Jack (@jmorse_) June 10, 2018
Aiyo, come on leh, it’s just a poor innocent little fan. Free one some more still hiam so much.
Some of them even suggest that it might be a listening device…
or even a device targeted to attack the journalists.
They’re all very imaginative, don’t you think so?
Nevertheless, in response to these speculation, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) have since clarified that the fans are just simple devices with no storage or processing capabilities.
But then hor, if they are so paranoid, why didn’t it occur to them that the spread of food prepped for them could be poisoned too leh?
So I would suggest them that next time when they attend such event, they better prepare some needles that are made of silver to test for poison. Kiasu a bit, because you will never know what will happen, right?
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