By SINGAPORE — The Police have arrested a 22-year-old man for his suspected involvement in compromising Mediacorp’s meconnect accounts.
On 22 February 2023, the Police received a report of 14,000 meconnect accounts being compromised.
Through follow-up investigations, officers from the Criminal Investigation Department established the identity of the man and arrested him on 9 March 2023.
The man is assisting with investigations into an offence of unauthorised access to computer materials under Section 3(1) of the Computer Misuse Act 1993, which carries a fine not exceeding $5,000, an imprisonment of up to two years, or both.
National broadcaster Mediacorp earlier revealed on 23 February that 14,000 meconnect users have had their passwords reset after their accounts were accessed by an unidentified external party. The unauthorised access was detected in late January after a surge in login activity.
Mediacorp said that login credentials for the accounts – which are used to access Mediacorp services such as online streaming platform meWatch – were not leaked from the system, and “further investigations did not reveal any evidence that users’ personal data had been misused or disclosed to the public”.
Payment information had not been compromised either.
Mediacorp then informed all affected account holders about the matter and reset their passwords. It also filed a police report and informed regulators, including the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC).
A PDPC spokesman said in response to queries that it is investigating the incident and has reached out to Mediacorp for more information.