Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has convened a committee to look into how data is collected and protected by agencies, vendors and authorised third parties, in an effort to strengthen data security practices across the entire public service.
The Public Sector Data Security Review Committee will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean and include 4 Ministers involved in Singapore’s Smart Nation efforts – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Mr S Iswaran, Mr Chan Chun Sing, and Dr Janil Puthucheary, along with private sector representatives.
This committee will also make recommendations on technical measures, processes and capabilities to improve the Government’s protection of data, and response to incidents such as the database leaks. In addition, the committee will also develop an action plan for immediate and long term measures to implement the recommendations.
In a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office, “Over the years, the Government has progressively enhanced security measures to safeguard sensitive data… Nevertheless, the Government acknowledges that recent data-related incidents have underlined the urgency to strengthen data security policies and practices in the public sector.”
The Committee will submit its findings and recommendations by 30 November 2019.
