Illustrative image (Source: .straitstimes.com)Singapore (VNA) - The entire public service of Singapore will have to conform toa common framework to safeguard citizens' personal data, beginning with 13new measures developed after a spate of breaches in the past year, reportedlocal media.
Thesedigital measures, some of which are being put in place, aim to make databasesunusable if information has been wrongfully extracted from them, detect unusualdata transmissions and limit users' access rights.
Sensitive files have to be encrypted and highly sensitiveattributes of individuals, such as one's HIV status, are to be hidden away in aseparate system with tighter controls.
All the 13 measures will eventually be deployed to accord thehighest level of protection for the most sensitive information. For instance,the database of patients with infectious diseases and individuals who werebankrupt will have the highest form of protection involving most, if notall, of the 13 measures.
The technical measures announced on July 15 are the first ofmore to come from a new Public Sector Data Security Review Committee, which wasconvened by Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in April this year.
The committee was formed after a spate of cyber-securitybreaches over the past year, with the latest involving the personal data ofmore than 800,000 blood donors accessed illegally and uploaded on anunauthorised server for more than two months.
Singapore's worstcyber-attack happened in June last year and involved the database ofSingapore's largest public healthcare cluster SingHealth. Hackers made awaywith the personal data of 1.5 million patients and the outpatient prescriptioninformation of 160,000 people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.-VNA
