Cyber Attack on Singapore Health Database
SingHealth, Singapore’s largest group of health care institution recently experienced data breach scandal leading to around 1.5 million patient’s personal data being compromised. The data stolen include:
- Name
- NRIC no.(National ID Card Number)
- Address
- Gender
- Race
- Date of Birth
The irony is that- the scandal occurred after the highly digitized state prioritized cyber- security on the top for ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) member countries, that it will host this year.
Of the 1.5 million patients, 160,000 were victim of the outpatient medication data theft as well. Among these 160,000 victims includes Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon.
Cyber Attack on Singapore Health Database was aimed to steal the medication data of the Prime minister particularly in a bid to seek some dark secret of his to embarrass him. However, according to Lee, thieves must have left disappointed as his medical details are not something that he will ordinarily declare and also claims to have no such alarming secrets to humiliate him.
Patients who visited the clinic between May 2015 and July 4 this year were known to have been affected by this incident. This comprises of more than a quarter of city state’s population.
Probe by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and the Integrated Health Information System (IHiS) on the issue reveals that the act was deliberate and well-planned to target Prime Minister and other eminent people.
Culprit behind the attack is not known yet. There is no information regarding the misuse of the stolen data. However, Prime Minister has ordered thorough investigation on the matter keeping in mind the security concerns of patient’s personal information.
Integrated Health Information System has also been directed to conduct review on healthcare system and increase the security to improve cyber threat detection, response and prevention.
