Govt depts told to review data security measures

The government's top IT office on Sunday said it was asking all bureaus and departments to comprehensively review their data security measures, and reply within a week. This came after reports of two data leaks in the past few days, involving the Companies Registry and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD). The registry said on Friday the data of some 110,000 people had been exposed due to a fault in its digital platform. The day before, the EMSD apologised over the data leak of some 17,000 public housing residents who had to undergo mandatory Covid tests in 2022. Addressing the issue on social media, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer said it's highly concerned about the incidents. It said it had again sent clear directives to the heads of bureaus and departments about the reviews. "We also reminded all users and systems under the departments that they must stringently comply with the government's rules, policies and guidelines on data security in handling sensitive and personal information," it said in the post. The office added this includes never storing data on publicly-owned cloud platforms.