There's A Good Story Here Somewhere

The press claimed that DBS and IBM jointly released a blow-by-blow account of how the online banking system went on the blink and caused island wide havoc. But at the end of the day, we are not even shown what exactly was the offending cable. Just like PUB never did release a photograph of the clogged drain.

All we know is that two employees at the bottom of the food chain won't be allowed anywhere near DBS computers again. Their laughable repair antics rival the bungling efforts of the Watergate burglars. Instead of doing a continuity check of the suspect cable, whatever it is, they simply plugged it in and out, as if that would coax the hardware to co-operate. Instructions to do that actually came from IBM's overseas support centre, location of which Asean General Manager Cordelia Chung curiously declined to disclose. If chewing gum were not banned in Singapore, they'd probably have a few sticks in their standard issue IBM service kit too. The least management could have done is to release a copy of the repair procedure that tripped their best brains. Are they afraid some techie from Sim Lim Square will teach them a better way to go about it? At lower rates? A smoking gun is always the best tool to kill off conspiracy theories.

Once upon a time, the adage was that if you buy IBM, you can't go wrong. That alone justified the high price tag and monopoly of the corporate market. But when things go horribly wrong, the gaze should be on the business side of things as well as the technical. MAS only went so far to suggest that DBS should diversify their outsource providers, nobody has yet dared raise a finger at the errant vendor. DBS CEO Piyush Gupta himself would not hear of initiating legal action against their favourite vendor. Throwing good money after bad never solves problems. Setting aside another $230 million is no assurance that the money will be spent on decent cables. What they should do is call for an independent third party to audit the whole shebang.

Watergate brought down Tricky Dicky. But where are our equivalents of Woodward and Bernstein? The local mainstream media likes to conjure up journalistic awards and pad themselves on the back, but where's the beef to show for it? And that "scoop" about the capture of Mas Selamant, notice all the details and photographs of the hideout came from Malaysian papers. Come on guys, start earning your pay!