The Committee of Inquiry (COI) invites members of the public to submit written representations regarding cybersecurity attacks following the recent SingHealth data breach and those who are interested will be able to do so from now until 31 October at 5 pm.
The committee convened to inquire into the events and contributing factors leading to the cyber attack on patient database system on or around 27 June 2018.
In a press release on Tuesday (11 September), Ministry of Communication and Information (MCI) informed members of the public who wish to submit their recommendation on any matter falling within items 3, 4 and 5 of its Terms of Reference (TOR) that they can recommend measures to enhance the incident response plans for similar incidents and to better protect SingHealth’s patient database system against similar cybersecurity attacks, as well as recommending measures to reduce the risk of such cybersecurity attacks on public sector IT systems which contain large databases of personal data, including in the other public healthcare clusters.
MCI stated that the written representations should include the author’s name, occupation, address, contact number and email address; a brief description of the organisation (if any) that the representation is made on behalf of; any financial or other interest that the author (and the organisation he/ she represents) has in the COI’s TOR; and whether the author is willing to appear before the COI to give evidence if required.
Written representations should be sent to the Committee’s Secretary, Mr Thng E-Shen, or co-Secretary Ms Melanie Huang at:
Address: Ministry of Communications and Information
#05-00 Old Hill Street Police Station
140 Hill Street
Singapore 179369Email: [email protected]
The COI stated that it will take into consideration submissions on the specified items 3, 4 and 5 of the TOR which are received for the purposes of the inquiry. Separately, members of the public who may have any personal data related concerns in relation to the cyber attack on SingHealth can contact the Personal Data Protection Commission, through its website.
The COI said it will determine whether to call any of the authors to give evidence at the hearing and if so, whom. The COI may also seek clarification from authors on their written representations as well as subsequently publish any written representations it receives. The closing date for the submission of written representations is 31 October 2018, 5.00pm.
The COI will be holding a tranche of hearings from 21 September to 5 October 2018 at Court 5A of the Supreme Court. Details of which hearings will be private or public and the respective dates thereof will be furnished in due course.
