Over the past five months, Singapore Accountancy Commission (SAC), which is a statutory board under the country's Ministry of Finance unintentionally leaked the personal data of 6,541 people to more than 40 recipients.
On Friday SAC said that those disclosed details included personal information of past and current Singapore chartered accountant qualification candidates, accredited training organisation personnel and other individuals who were involved in the administrative work in Singapore chartered accountant qualification programme before May 17.
As mentioned by the commission names, NRIC numbers, date of birth, contact details, education and employment information, as well as chartered accountant qualification examination results of the individuals, were leaked. The affected people were informed on Friday about the unfortunate incident.
The authority detected the incident on November 7
SAC stated that the disclosed details were in a folder which was unintentionally attached in e-mails and sent to 41 people at 22 organisations accredited training organisations and one vendor between June 12 and October 22. The authority detected this incident on November 7 after they implemented a new data protection filter as part of the recommendations made by the Public Sector Data Security Review Committee.
After they came to know about the mistake, the commission contacted 22 organizations on November 11 and asked them to delete the files and clean the data. As per The Straits Times SAC said the organisations, where they unintentionally forwarded the details, confirmed that they have deleted the data folder. For more queries, people can contact the commission at SAC_CHECK@sac.gov.sg.
SAC to set up a panel to review the incident
However, SAC will set up a panel which will be chaired by Chaly Mah, SAC's chairman and comprise members from the SAC board, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office and the Public Service Division to review the incident and make required recommendations
Here, it should be mentioned that Singapore has already stepped forward and decided to turn the city-state into a Smart Nation, by harnessing technology to the fullest with the aim of improving the lives of citizens, creating more opportunities and building stronger communities. The island country has already started many programs to change the future of Singapore.
