Head, Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection KK Lim quoted in The Lianhe Zaobao article titled "Improvement measures for Cyber attacks"

Eversheds Harry Elias Head, Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection KK Lim has been quoted in The Lianhe Zaobao article titled "Improvement measures for Cyber attacks". The article was first published on 8 January 2020. 

Improvement measures for Cyber attacks

Ministry of Defence adopts layered framework to strengthen the supervision of supplying Cybersecurity measures.

After the Ministry of Defence experienced a malware attack on a service provider, resulting in the possible leakage of personnel data, a layered cybersecurity framework will be adopted to strengthen supervision of suppliers. Layered framework will ensure that vendors dealing with more sensitive data accept more stringent cybersecurity standards. This may include regular reviews.

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen disclosed the improvement measures taken by the Ministry of Defence in the Congress in response to questions from members.

He pointed out that some of the protection measures that the Ministry of Defence had taken before the incident, included the inclusion of personal data protection clauses in all new contracts involving personal data, and the integration of these clauses to be gradually put into existing contracts with the suppliers.

Below is an excerpt from the article which features comment from KK Lim: 

"....The Ministry of Defence revealed in December that the computer systems of two service providers, Shinco Logistics and Xinkang International Health Sciences Academy, had been compromised by malware.

In the first incident, the personal data of about 2400 people may have already been leaked.

In the second incident, a total of 98,000 people were affected. Fortunately, the probability of a data breach was low. The Ministry of National Defence has since notified the people affected by this situation on December 21st 2019 onwards.

In both cases, the computer systems and operations of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces were not affected.

Mr KK Lim, Head of Cybersecurity, privacy and data protection at Eversheds Harry Elias pointed out  that suppliers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, generally have relatively low network health due to cost issues, and are easily targeted by cyber-attacks..."

Full article can be found here.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao

Author: Lee Simin