Head, Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection KK Lim quoted in The Straits Times article titled "Home Front: Breaking down the double standards of data protection"

Eversheds Harry Elias Head, Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection KK Lim quoted in The Straits Times article titled "Home Front: Breaking down the double standards of data protection". The article was first published on 19 December 2019.

Home Front: Breaking down the double standards of data protection

Singapore currently has different sets of standards for protecting personal data - one for the private sector that is viewed as more stringent, and another for public sector agencies. But this will change, following a public sector-wide review.

An overhaul of personal data security measures is currently under way in the Government, following several data breaches over recent years that have rocked the public sector.

The changes take their cue from the recommendations of the Public Sector Data Security Review Committee (PSDSRC), which drew them up after eight months of research across systems in all 94 government agencies.

The updated measures will be rolled out in 80 per cent of government systems by end-2021, and the rest by the end of 2023, as they require significant redesign.

The changes will be written into the Government's Instruction Manual 8 (IM8), which prescribes measures to protect and manage data that all government agencies need to comply with.

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

"......A key recommendation for improving transparency in the public sector's data security is to publish the Government's policies and standards relating to personal data protection, and provide an annual update on this.

While it remains to be seen how many details of these policies will be published, more information is certainly better than less.

As the Government has maintained that its standards are comparable to, if not more stringent than the PDPA, publishing the policies will allow people to see for themselves if this is so, and be assured that their information is protected as best as possible, said Mr K. K. Lim, head of cyber security, privacy and data protection at law firm Eversheds Harry Elias...."

Full article can be found here.

Source: The Straits Times

Author: Hariz Baharudin