Cyber attack on Singaporean defence ministry occurred weeks before being detected

By Alfred Chua

A cyber attack in Singapore which resulted in the theft of the personal data of about 850 national servicemen and Ministry of Defence (Mindef) employees occurred weeks before it was detected on February 1, Second Defence Minister Ong Ye Kung told the country’s parliament.

Responding to questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) on the breach of the I-net system, which provides Internet access to national servicemen as well as employees from Mindef and the Singapore Armed Forces, Mr Ong said investigations are still ongoing.

But findings will be “kept confidential for security reasons”, he added, noting that the hackers’ “modus operandi was consistent with a covert attack”.

Mindef had previously said that classified military information was not compromised, as that was stored on a separate and more secure system which is not connected to the World Wide Web. However, the personal data of I-net account holders comprising NRIC numbers, telephone numbers, and dates of births were stolen.

Asked whether the stolen data could be exploited for future cyber attacks, Mr Ong said those information were “basic” and could not be used to conduct further hacking attempts.