HACKERS STEAL DATA OF 1.5M SINGAPOREANS

SINGAPORE— Hackers had breached the city-state’s health database and stole the records of 1.5 million Singaporeans, the government announced on Friday.

Security experts said nation-states were likely behind Singapore’s biggest ever cyberattack and specifically targeted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, whose health data was also stolen.

‘Deliberate, targeted’

Singapore’s health minister said the strike was “a deliberate, targeted, and well-planned cyberattack and not the work of casual hackers or criminal gangs.”

But Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the attackers.

“With regard to the prime minister’s data and why he was targeted, I would say that it’s perhaps best not to speculate what the attacker had in mind,” said David Koh, the agency’s head.

8-day attack

The hackers used a computer infected with malware to gain access to the database between June 27 and July 4 before administrators spotted “unusual activity,” authorities said.

Experts told Agence France-Presse ( AFP) that the complexity of the attack and its focus on high-profile targets, like the prime minister, pointed to the hand of a state-actor.

“A cyberespionage threat actor could leverage disclosure of sensitive health information... to coerce an individual in [a] position of interest to conduct espionage” on its behalf, said Eric Hoh, Asia-Pacific president of cybersecurity firm FireEye.

“The nature of such attacks is that they are conducted by nation-states using very advanced tools,” he said. “They tend to be well-resourced, well-funded and highly sophisticated.”

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are believed to have the capability to carry out such attacks.

The attack started two weeks after the wealthy citystate hosted the historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.—