Public officers reported 108 cases of data leaks by the Singapore Government last year, up 44 per cent from 75 cases in 2019.
All of the incidents were assessed to be of “medium” or “low” severity, according to the second annual report on the Government’s personal data protection efforts released on Tuesday (July 27).
Without disclosing details, its author, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO), defined medium severity to mean that a government agency had suffered difficult or undesirable consequences, with minor inconvenience to individuals or businesses.
There were no severe incidents reported last year. These are incidents that damage national security or the public’s confidence, or those resulting in death or serious physical, financial or sustained emotional injury to an individual.
To date, only two such severe incidents have been reported. Both took place in 2018.
The first is the unauthorised disclosure of the confidential data of 14,200 patients from the Ministry of Health’s HIV registry. The second is the unauthorised access of 223 case files due to a vulnerability in the State Courts’ online system.
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