security

Telegram-based ‘Outsider Enterprise’ accused of sending millions of scam texts and impersonating trusted brands

Google has sued an alleged China-based cybercrime operation it says used AI-powered phishing kits to blast out millions of scam text messages and funnel victims to fake websites designed to steal passwords, payment cards, and other sensitive information.

The complaint targets a group Google refers to as the “Outsider Enterprise,” which the company describes as a sprawling criminal network that operates on Telegram and supplies phishing tools to other fraudsters.

According to Google’s filing, the operation has been linked to more than 9,000 fraudulent websites, over one million malicious URLs, and scams that have allegedly defrauded hundreds of thousands of people.

The group’s biz model centers on distributing phishing kits that enable criminals to impersonate Google and other trusted brands through large-scale text message campaigns, Google claims. Victims are directed to fraudulent websites designed to steal login credentials, payment card details, and other sensitive information, it adds.

Google’s allegation is not that AI is somehow breaking into people’s phones, but rather that the technology appears to have been used to help churn out phishing content, allowing the operation to push more scams, more quickly, and with less effort.

Android users flagged more than 55,000 spam texts linked to the operation during a two-week period in May, we’re told, while the company detected roughly 2.5 million messages containing links to Outsider-controlled websites sent to Android devices during the same time frame.

The lawsuit forms part of a broader effort involving federal law enforcement and US telecom providers. Google said it is coordinating with the FBI, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to disrupt the infrastructure behind the campaigns and block malicious messages before they reach users.

“The criminals behind the Outsider Enterprise built a business out of impersonating trusted brands to defraud hundreds of thousands of victims,” said Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division.

“Criminals increasingly use AI to make fraud like this more convincing and harder to detect. Together with partners like Google, we can disrupt criminal networks in ways no single organization could on its own.”

The lawsuit may never put the alleged operators in a courtroom, but it could still help pull apart the infrastructure behind the campaigns. ®

I’ve spent the last 21 years of my life on a vegetarian diet, and because of that, I naturally cook and eat many meat-free vegan recipes. However, when I first heard about meal kits, I was skeptical, assuming that they wouldn’t cater to a plant-based diet. But when I began testing meal delivery services for CNET, I was happy to discover that there are a plethora of meal kits that accommodate vegan dietary restrictions.

When it comes to vegan meal kits, Purple Carrot often comes to mind because it’s a 100% plant-based service. Yet, there are many other companies that offer vegan dishes — just not as many. It’s one of those other services that outperformed Purple Carrot in my eyes. I’m talking about the USDA-certified organic Green Chef.

Although Green Chef isn’t 100% vegan like Purple Carrot, this is why I’d chose the former if I were to spend my own money on vegan meal kits.

Green Chef puts thought into its vegan dishes

Choosing Green Chef over Purple Carrot as my favorite vegan meal kit service came down to taste and the thoughtfulness of recipes. Over the two decades I’ve been preparing and chowing down on vegan meals, I’ve noticed that some recipes tend to equate “vegan” with “flavorless,” either overcompensating on spice or salt or undercompensating by simply throwing tofu in a dish with barely any preparation. 

I found that Green Chef’s meals incorporated a lovely blend of veggies, greens, grains, seeds and beans while still ensuring that each layer of its dishes was packed with the right amount of flavor. Even though Green Chef doesn’t solely focus on vegan recipes, each one I tried didn’t feel like an afterthought. 

Roasted squash and bell pepper sandwiches, creamy tomato pasta with roasted veggies and black bean burritos and spiced cauliflower are the three Green Chef meals I tried, and I would gladly make them all again.

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A Purple Carrot protein predicament 

From Purple Carrot, I’ve tried eight different meals, and some I liked better than others, but overall it felt like the brand was struggling to find the right balance of flavors, especially in how its vegan proteins were prepared. For example, two of the proteins I tried, crispy lemon chick’n and adobo-roasted tofu, lacked tasty, well-rounded flavors, and I wasn’t able to finish eating them. 

Most recently, I tried Head Peloton Instructor Robin Arzón’s “Eat To Hustle” high-protein meal collaboration with Purple Carrot. I liked those meals better than others I’d tried from the brand, but still, Green Chef’s recipes win in the flavor category.

If it’s important to you, Green Chef’s meals are also USDA-certified organic, while only some Purple Carrot ingredients are organic or non-GMO.

Green Chef vs. Purple Carrot: The price comparison evens out

Purple Carrot and Green Chef meal kits are about even in price, and both are subscription services. Green Chef charges a flat $14 a serving, while Purple Carrot’s meal kits are $13 to $14 a serving. The latter’s ready-to-eat dishes range from $13 to $18, while grocery items are $3 to $40. 

Purple Carrot’s shipping is $12, but orders over $100 ship free. A $15 shipping surcharge may apply to select ZIP codes. As for Green Chef, shipping is a flat $10. 

Some Purple Carrot meal kits may be $1 cheaper per serving than Green Chef’s, but the latter’s shipping for orders under $100 is $2 less.

Where Purple Carrot wins: Variety

Green Chef offers at least five vegan meal kits per week, whereas Purple Carrot provides over 50 options, including meal kits and ready-to-eat meals, each week. The week of writing, there were 33 meal kits. 

Both services include breakfast, lunch and dinner options. While Purple Carrot has ready-to-eat meals and grocery items, such as oatmeal, cheese, snacks and vegan proteins, Green Chef has its Green Market as “add-ons” on its menu, including side dishes, juices, egg bites and ready-to-cook non-vegan proteins. 

If you want more than five vegan meal kits each week, Purple Carrot would be a better choice.

Other dietary restrictions offered

Along with vegan meals, Green Chef provides recipes for the following dietary restrictions and preferences: vegetarian, Mediterranean, gluten-free, calorie smart, high protein, high fiber, low added sugar, keto, dairy-free, sodium smart and carb smart. There are also kits with ingredients that support gut or brain health.

In addition to being 100% vegan, Purple Carrot supports gluten-free, high-protein, high-fiber and under-600-calorie meals. 

Between the two, Green Chef has more preferences that you can use to sort through its menu. It would also be great for flexitarians who want to eat more plant-based food but don’t want to go all the way.

My final thoughts

After testing a variety of vegan meal kit services for the past few years, I’ve come to the conclusion that, as long as price isn’t an issue, the deciding factor between companies is taste. In this respect, and since they’re about the same cost, my favorite vegan meal kits are Green Chef’s, despite Purple Carrot’s notoriety in the category. 

Ultimately, if you’re vegan and want to give meal kits a try, or if you eat meat but want to consume less of it, my personal recommendation for meal kits is Green Chef. But if you’re going for more variety and options each week, then check out Purple Carrot. 

EXCLUSIVE For the past 90 days, Microsoft has been quietly patching a firmware flaw in Surface devices that allowed the hardware to be bricked with a single packet, though only for those who have disabled Secure Core and Secure Boot.

And the company’s Copilot AI software inadvertently helped identify the faulty firmware.

According to Jack Darcy, a security researcher based in Australia, his instance of Microsoft Copilot stumbled across the bug after being asked to adjust the screen backlighting on a Surface device. The Copilot-conjured Python script ended up rendering the researcher’s laptop inoperable by overwriting the embedded controller firmware.

“Copilot autonomously created and executed four progressively aggressive Python scripts during a probe for backlight control values that sent raw SSAM ioctl commands (SSAM_CDEV_REQUEST = 0xC028A501) directly to the SAM microcontroller through the SAM software path,” Darcy explained to The Register.

The SAM or SSAM is the embedded controller used in Surface devices. And as our source explained, Microsoft’s implementation of the controller in Surface devices did not include any defense against arbitrary write values.

Microsoft does not consider the bug to be a practical threat. “There is no realistic attack scenario with this issue,” a spokesperson told The Register. “In order to successfully exploit it, an attacker would need to interact with specific drivers and send commands to a hardware interface. This would require administrator privileges on the machine, as well as disabling the Secure Boot feature. With this access, they could perform any number of actions.”

Commonly, Darcy said, digital devices require holding a button down or connecting a jumper cable to enable arbitrary write access. But that security check is absent in Surface devices, we’re told, enabling Copilot to vandalize the firmware in the absence of Secure Core and Secure Boot. Essentially, the probing triggered an update command from the SAM that overwrote the UEFI and Secure Boot firmware.

Surface devices treated to this sort of probing should continue to operate because the SAM was already initialized and is running in RAM. But upon reboot, when the SAM tries to reload using corrupted data in its non-volatile storage, it will fail to initialize, and the system will be unable to Power-On Self-Test (POST).

The Python script crafted by Copilot on the security researcher’s Surface device iterated blindly over a particular Target Category and the set of Command ID (CID) pairs, sending empty/null payloads to WRITE commands.

The result, Darcy explained, is that the SET Feature Report was called with null payload, the Output Report was called with null payload, and other CIDs were hit by SET commands that wrote garbage data.

As a result, the device became inoperable. We’re told this has been a common complaint about Surface devices online support forums over the years, though we have no way to determine whether boot failures reported for other Surface devices can be attributed to this specific problem.

Many Surface hardware issues reported publicly appear to be fixable through various troubleshooting techniques. But devices made inoperable by SAM access, our source insists, are permanently bricked – a situation that can entail hundreds of dollars in repairs for a new motherboard. No USB, no factory reset, no access to the BIOS/UEFI, we’re told.

Darcy said that the SAM Bus is terribly designed.

“There is no way to see the current value without scanning the bus,” he said. “But scanning the bus kills the unit.”

The problem is that the CIDs, which are like APIs for the SAM, have been interleaved in a way that’s dangerous.

“If all the reads were grouped together (say, CIDs 0x01–0x0F) and all the writes were grouped separately (say, CIDs 0x10–0x1F), a probe script could safely scan the read range without ever accidentally wandering into write territory,” Darcy said. “You could even put a simple bounds check in your code: ‘only probe below 0x10.’ Done. Safe.

“But because reads and writes are interleaved in the same numbering space, there is no safe range to probe. You literally cannot scan even two consecutive CIDs without a coin-flip chance of hitting a write command. The moment you decide to enumerate what’s available, you’re already firing blind writes, because the command space gives you zero structural information about which operations are safe and which are destructive.”

Managed devices not at risk

The Register asked Microsoft about our source’s claims on March 10, 2026. A company spokesperson reiterated a prior suggestion that the researcher contact the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), an effort our source found too cumbersome. Rather than publishing details about what might have been a potential zero-day flaw – we were uncertain about the Secure Boot/Secure Core requirement at the time – The Register reached out to internal Microsoft sources in an effort to get someone’s attention.

By March 12, with the help of Microsoft media relations, we managed to coordinate a conversation between Darcy and Madeline Eckert, senior program manager with MSRC. Microsoft subsequently acknowledged the vulnerability and committed to issuing a fix. The Register in turn agreed to delay publication for 90 days while repairs were made. We’re told most affected devices have been updated (via Windows Update), or will receive updates in coming weeks. The issue did not meet the bar for a CVE, according to the company.

“We appreciate the work of Jack Darcy and The Register for reporting this issue under a coordinated vulnerability disclosure,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. “Our investigation found that a deprecated UEFI interface could trigger a boot loop on some devices. To trigger this loop, the user must have administrator privileges and have already disabled the Secure Boot security feature. We have released updates to address the issue for most impacted devices.”

That means managed devices are not at risk.

But those using Linux, or Windows users who have disabled Secure Core and Secure Boot for gaming, or who use custom Windows drivers, or who have USB boot enabled, may still be vulnerable if their systems haven’t received the update.

We’re uncertain about the range of Surface devices affected. Our source said it appears to be all of them (Surface Laptops 3-6, Surface Book 1-3) except for Surface Go models. ARM variants, however, have not been tested.

Microsoft moving Surface to Rust

One of the things we learned from Darcy during the effort to get this issue patched is that Microsoft is planning to move the Surface stack to Rust. We understand from David Abzarian, chief architect for Microsoft Surface, that work is underway to transition future Surface for Business hardware to a more secure architecture based on Rust code.

“Our most recent Surface for Business hardware features a major architectural shift in terms of improved reliability and security that spans our embedded controller, UEFI, but also some of our drivers,” said Abzarian in a statement provided to The Register. “We’re investing in the most secure foundation for a PC by building our embedded controller firmware from the ground up in Rust (as part of leveraging and contributing to the Open Device Partnership (ODP)) in addition to a rewrite of the UEFI DXE Core in Rust; these projects are known as Secure EC and Project Patina respectively. 

“We’re also not only shipping some of our drivers written in Rust, but also helping co-develop the framework Windows Drivers in Rust (WDR) to help enable a broad set of partners in the Windows ecosystem to capitalize on these benefits. I will also note that all of these efforts are open-source promoting one of our key security principles around transparency.”

Asked to comment, Darcy said, “The fact that a device can be destroyed, irreparably from userspace is… certainly an interesting design decision. While I applaud Microsoft for their beautiful, and innovative Surface series, a little more innovation around verifying incoming data at the firmware level would have been greatly appreciated.” 

We’re told Microsoft provided Darcy with a Surface laptop as a show of appreciation. ®

Within an hour after a horrific knife attack took place in Belfast on Monday night, far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson had shared a video of the incident on X, a post that racked up six million views. Within hours Elon Musk, the owner of the platform, weighed in, agreeing with a post calling for “consequences” for politicians.

By Tuesday morning, supercharged by X, the video was everywhere, and groups on Facebook were organizing protests across Northern Ireland and the UK. Far-right figures in the US and UK continued to pour fuel on the fire online, framing the incident as part of a broader anti-white agenda being perpetrated in Western countries.

By Tuesday evening, violent protests had broken out in Belfast, with masked rioters setting fire to vehicles, kicking in the doors of homes they believed housed immigrants, and setting those homes on fire.

Politicians were quick to criticize Musk and Robinson, who did not reply to requests for comment, for their role in fomenting the violence, but what no one appeared to notice was the role played by the white supremacist Active Club movement and its Youth Club wing in not only stoking tensions, but advising and orchestrating the masked youths who spearheaded much of the violence.

A WIRED investigation has documented how this global network activated within hours of the incident, showing how groups across the US helped promote the violence in Belfast. The movement is already analyzing how the protests played out and using them as a template for others to follow, highlighting the “organisation and professionalism” of those involved.

“Active Clubs, the fastest growing neo-Nazi movement around the globe, never miss an opportunity to exploit a tragedy for their own hateful purposes,” says Wendy Via, cofounder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “The protests in Belfast had hardly started before Active Club senior voices were functioning as a support network for the racist riots and encouraging replication in other countries.”

Around 10:30 pm local time on Monday night, emergency services were called to the Kinnaird Avenue area in north Belfast. Soon after, a video was shared online by an unknown person which showed a horrific knife attack against Stephen Ogilvie, who was left hospitalised with severe injuries to the face and neck, including the loss of his left eye.

Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese man, was arrested at the scene and has since been charged with attempted murder.

After Robinson posted the footage, it quickly gained steam on mainstream social media platforms. US-based X account End Wokeness, which specializes in sharing culture war and ragebait content, shared a screenshot from the video, with the caption: “African migrant just tried to behead a white man in North Belfast, Ireland. Video is too graphic to post.” The post has been viewed over 16M times.

Musk posted dozens of times about the incident in the following days, drawing the ire of politicians in the UK, but away from mainstream platforms like X and Facebook, other groups were also mobilizing and being much more explicit about the reason they believed a strong response was necessary.

Just hours after the attack took place, at 2:19 am on Tuesday morning, a Telegram channel called “White Youth In Revolt”—named after a phrase used across the Active Club and Youth Club movements—shared a screenshot of the video, writing: “Negro invader just attempted to behead a white man in the United Kingdom.”

The account typically shares content from Active Clubs in the US, but given the network’s growing footprint outside of America, it has a lot of followers in Europe.

Modern TV-watching is as much about anxiously messing around with settings to make sure the picture doesn’t look terrible as it is about actually enjoying a show. Happily, Google TV now lets you offload all the hassle onto Gemini.

First announced during a Google TV news dump at CES at the beginning of 2026, the new functionality allows you to adjust picture and audio settings with natural language voice commands. You can set brightness and contrast levels, change the picture mode, increase volume and tweak the EQ without needing to reach for your remote (although you can also summon Gemini by holding the microphone button if you’d rather not use the wake word).

As well as specific commands like “set picture mode to Sport” (likely to be a popular one in the coming weeks given the World Cup has just started), you can also troubleshoot if something doesn’t look or sound right. If you say “Hey Google, the screen is too dark,” Gemini will attempt to correct the issue for you. Tell it you can’t hear dialogue clearly and it will boost voices. That kind of thing. 

You can also use Gemini for mood-setting if you want a theater-worthy movie night, and if you don’t entirely trust the AI’s calibration skills, you can instead just ask it to save you a few clicks by opening the exact settings menu you’re looking for before taking over.

Google points out that picture and sound modes vary across devices, so it’s probably wise to make sure you know what your TV can do before using the new voice features. Otherwise you might spend even longer trying to get it looking and sounding right than you would using the old-fashioned manual solution.

The other thing to note is that this functionality is currently exclusive to select TCL models in the US. In the next few weeks it’ll start rolling out to the QM9K, X11L, QM9L, QM8L and RM9L. You’ll have to perform a system update to start using it. There’s no word on when or indeed if other models or brands will be supported.

Google TV’s Gemini-assisted functionality has been expanding over the last few months. Back in March, Google introduced its “richer visual help” feature, which tries to respond to commands with more useful information. Ask for current sports scores, for example, and Gemini will display both a live scorecard and information on where you can watch that game.

Sport briefs, which are essentially a sports-oriented version of the news roundups that debuted last year, also arrived in March, as well as visual “deep dives” on specific topics.

from the perhaps-he’s-on-team-measles dept

Cases of measles in American continue to rise. As of June 5th of this year, the official case count in the country stood at 2,030 confirmed cases. In 2025’s record breaking year for measles cases, the most we’d had in 3 decades, there were 2,288 confirmed cases. We’re going to speed right past that number in 2026, given that we’re nearly there already and we’re only half way through the year.

It was just weeks ago in April when RFK Jr. decided to wash his hands of the measles problem, literally saying it has nothing to do with him and was instead the fault of dirty immigrants invading our country.

“It has nothing to do with me,” he told lawmakers. “If you’re worried about polio and tuberculosis, you should look at the immigration policies in this country. ’Cause the place where it’s occurring are the place[s] where the immigrants are going, because they’re not vaccinated.”

This anti-immigrant trope when it comes to disease is as old as time, of course, and plainly stupid. But because the measles outbreak isn’t going to go away on its own, Kennedy had to address it recently during a trip to Virginia, where measles is becoming a growing problem. And in addressing it, Kennedy managed to pack more wrong into two sentences than I’ve ever seen before.

“There’s a global measles epidemic right now, we’ve done better than any country in the world in controlling it,” Kennedy said. “At [the] CDC we encourage people to get their measles vaccination, that’s the best way to prevent yourself from getting measles.”

Stating that there is a global measles epidemic is a sneaky statement to make for a number of reasons. First, I’ll note that there is no definition of terms that comes along with the claim. Second, much of the global data on this comes from the WHO, which, to date, has published global case counts only up to 2024 on its main tracking page, though it does have some surveillance data that goes up to the current month. And that data suggests that there is an uptick of global measles cases, to be sure, but nothing like there was only a few decades ago. In 2024, for instance, the WHO counted roughly 700k global cases of measles, compared with 1.5 million cases in 1993.

But regardless of how true it is that this is a global problem, it doesn’t matter. Kennedy’s job is to keep Americans safe from disease, not the world. Hand-waving away our own measles problem by globalizing it is a non-sequitur. And claiming that America is doing better than any other country on the measles problem is so wrong as to be laughable. The WHO has a handy presentation on the current measles problem and you can see that we aren’t even handling it the best in our own region.

That chart pretty clearly shows that Brazil and Canada are both doing a far better job than us in keeping measles cases low and combating outbreaks, if nothing else. Canada has a much lower total population compared with America, but Brazil is much closer. Besides, as we stated before, Kennedy has already said that the measles outbreak has nothing to do with him. So why is he now taking credit for how great we’re doing combating it, even though we’re not. By the way, the entire European region is kicking the America region’s ass when it comes to combating measles currently.

And I don’t even know how much I have to say about Kennedy’s baffling claim that he and the CDC are huge advocates for getting vaccinated to prevent measles. As I’ve stated repeatedly, one of the tricks Kennedy pulls is to say all kinds of things about the same subject. On measles, he has said, begrudgingly, that people should get vaccinated. He’s also said it would be better for everyone to just get measles for natural immunity, not to mention that he’s attempted to blame the infected for getting the disease as well.

Telling the public to get vaccinated, but also to not get vaccinated, and that it’s their fault if they catch measles, does not distill to something so simple as “we encourage everyone to get vaccinated.”

Kennedy is a liar and a charlatan. As is common with a person like that, he’s all over the place with his public comments when it comes to the measles and what we, and he, should be doing about it. He thinks that allows him to pretend like he’s been very pro-vaccination. It doesn’t.

Remove this man from his post before he gets more people killed.

Filed Under: measles, rfk jr.

• A Google director has resigned over the company’s contracts with the DoD
• The director shared a letter internally with colleagues at Google
• “Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass”, the letter stated

A director for Android platform security has resigned from his position over Google’s contracts with the Department of Defense.

In a letter shared with colleagues, and seen by Business Insider, René Mayrhofer said that the decision had become “unavoidable” following Google’s decision to allow the Pentagon to use the company’s AI models for classified work.

The city-state’s hiring outlook has fallen to a five-year low

Singapore employers are turning more cautious on hiring for the third quarter of 2026.

According to ManpowerGroup’s latest Employment Outlook Survey, only 35% of employers in Singapore plan to increase headcount between Jul and Sept. Meanwhile, 41% expect no change to staffing levels, while 22% anticipate reducing their workforce.

Based on responses from 599 employers, Singapore’s Net Employment Outlook (NEO) for Q3 2026 came in at 13%, down 11 percentage points both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. This marks the softest hiring outlook since Q4 2021, when the NEO stood at -2%.

(Note: The NEO is calculated by subtracting the percentage of employers expecting to reduce headcount from those planning to hire.)

Singapore’s hiring outlook also lagged behind both the global average of 26% and the Asia-Pacific regional average of 28%.

Among employers planning to keep staffing levels unchanged, 38% said their current workforce was sufficient to meet business needs. Another 27% said they were holding off on hiring until there is greater clarity on economic conditions.

“Employers in Singapore are taking a more cautious approach to hiring this quarter, with many choosing to hold steady on headcount until there is greater clarity on geopolitical conditions,” said Linda Teo, country manager of ManpowerGroup Singapore.

Outlook across key industries

Despite the weaker overall hiring sentiment, most industries in Singapore still recorded positive NEOs for Q3 2026, indicating that more employers plan to hire than reduce headcount.

The Manufacturing sector reported the strongest hiring outlook among all industries surveyed.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Finance and Real Estate sector was the only major industry to record a negative NEO of -2%, signalling that more employers expect to cut jobs than add them. The Hospitality and Retail sector posted a flat NEO of 0%, though ManpowerGroup noted that the result was based on a relatively small sample size.

Quarter-on-quarter, hiring sentiment weakened across almost every industry. Most sectors saw their NEOs fall by double-digit percentage points, reflecting growing caution among employers amid ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

The Technology and IT sector was the exception, with its hiring outlook remaining unchanged from the previous quarter, making it the most stable sector in the survey.

One notable outlier was Utilities and Natural Resources, where the NEO jumped by 34 percentage points quarter-on-quarter. While ManpowerGroup cautioned that the sector’s sample size was relatively small, the increase comes amid Singapore’s continued push towards sustainability and clean energy development.

Last October, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Gan Siow Huang said the clean energy workforce is expected to grow by 60%—or around 1,000 workers—over the next decade, highlighting the sector’s longer-term growth potential.

AI skills pay off

Amid the challenging job landscape, Teo added that hiring decisions are becoming more selective, with companies prioritising a “skills-based approach.”

AI-related skills topped the list of competencies that employers are willing to pay a premium for.

According to the survey, 66% of Singapore employers said they would offer higher pay for AI literacy skills, such as the ability to use AI tools effectively. 64% would pay more for AI model and application development skills, while 56% cited traditional IT and data skills.

Sector-wise, employers in the public sector, health and social services were the most likely to pay a premium for AI literacy skills (78%), followed by professional, scientific and technical services (72%) and tech and IT services (69%).

For AI model and application development skills, employers in the information sector and professional, scientific and technical services were the most willing to pay more, with both industries recording 76%. Finance and insurance firms followed at 71%.

Employers also value interpersonal and soft skills, with 66% saying they would pay more for critical thinking and problem-solving. The same proportion would pay a premium for communication, collaboration and teamwork, followed by leadership and social influence capabilities at 64%.

The findings suggest that while employers may be slowing their hiring plans, they remain prepared to invest in workers with in-demand technical and transferable skills.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singapore’s current affairs here.

Featured Image Credit: 2p2play via Shutterstock

EPISODE 11 “And uh… what are you doing?” the Head of Security asks, entering the Security office as I’m making my way to the exit – with a PC under my arm.

“Just taking this back to the office to archive the contents and then reset it to factory defaults,” I say. “Company policy when someone has been… let go.”

There have been a number of changes at Security – the same number of changes as there used to be members of Security staff. Apparently, eating endless pastries and watching pirated movies isn’t an industry-standard procedure for security professionals. Furthermore, the spate of alcohol thefts from the boardroom liquor cabinet seems to have ended after HR discovered several empty bottles in Security’s overflowing recycling bin…

HR acted swiftly (for a change) and a whole new security team was employed, headed by a keen new broom – who’s currently blocking the doorway…

To say that he’s enthusiastic in his role would be an understatement. His first move was to isolate Security onto a completely separate internet feed, firewalled off from the rest of the Company. Move two was to implement a plan of recording the equipment people leave the building with – something that’s proving rather unpopular with laptop users.

“Oh, I don’t think we’ll need it to be erased,” he says, holding out his hands to retrieve the machine from my grasp.

“Really, there’s no telling what’s on this machine,” I say. “Malware, copyright movies, porn even. We don’t know. It’s safer – for the Company – if we just start from a clean machine. We might even just dump it to be on the safe side.”

“Sure,” the Head of Security says. “Though that machine looks like it’s almost brand new. It’s still got stickers on it! And it looks fairly… high end. I think we can take the risk. I’m pretty up-to-date with IT security and the like – so maybe you should let me worry about…”

“I think this should probably be HR’s call,” I respond. “They may want to be sure the Company isn’t exposed to any risk that the machine might present.”

“I can call HR if you like,” the Chief Pie-eater suggests, calling my bluff and reaching for his phone. “But I doubt they’d be too concerned.”

“They should be. If there’s malware installed on the recovery partition, you’ll reinfect the machine when you restore it to factory defaults.”

“Thanks for your concern,” he says, wresting the machine from my grasp and stepping out of the doorway.

…

So that’s how it’s going to be.

Obviously, we knew there was going to be trouble. We prepared ourselves for it. The new Security team has an enthusiasm for the job that was completely absent from the former crew, mainly because they’re jockeying for the position of 2IC.

The Boss is waiting for me when I get back to Mission Control.

“Just had a call from Security. Apparently, you were trying to… remove… one of their machines?”

“Yeah. I was going to erase it and restore it to factory settings.”

“Couldn’t you just do that there?”

“We prefer to do a reinstall on the DMZ segment – just in case there’s any malware on the machine after we restore it.”

“Right. Well, I talked to the guy, and it certainly sounded like he had everything under control,” the Boss assures me.

And so there you go. The Boss can determine someone’s technical competence from a two-minute phone call. It must be one of his superpowers, along with the toxic body odor and the ability to sniff out a kebab stand in a farmers’ market.

Two minutes later, in Mission Control…

“Right,” I say, entering Mission Control. “Everyone ready?”

The PFY nods.

The lead candidate for 2IC of Security nods.

“One of the pitfalls with security types is that they often shave with Occam’s razor,” I say. “When seeing someone leaving the office with a PC under their arm, they immediately think ‘office theft,’ rather than thinking ‘did this person bring the aforementioned machine into the office in the first place, wait until they heard someone approaching, then make to exit the office?’”

The 2IC candidate contemplates this silently.

“Another problem with security types is how to celebrate a victory. In this situation, a wise person would not simply ‘upgrade’ their desktop machine with this newer and shinier item – because it might have an infected operating system – AND infected recovery partition. No, a wise person would first sca-“

“Ooh, we’re in business!” the PFY interrupts, as his machine receives a ping.

“Right,” I say to Security 2IC, “I’d give it maybe half an hour – to really trash your network – before I head downstairs. Then maybe I’d ask why all the machines in your office appear to be going crazy.”

“And you think that would be enough to get him fired, do you?” he asks.

“It will be when you discover the stash of Company laptops in the boot of his car as he leaves the parking basement,” the PFY says. “And make sure you have the Head of HR with you.”

“Why’s that?” the soon-to-be Head of Security asks.

“Because one of the laptops is his…”