Approximately 140,000 records of work permit holders in Singapore were compromised following a cyber incident at healthcare provider Fullerton Health. According to the data, approximately 43,000 of these records related to individuals whose permits had already expired at the time of the incident.
Nature of the compromised information
The incident affected the Migrant Worker Primary Care Plan. Preliminary investigation results indicate that the following data may have been compromised: workers' full names, foreign identification numbers, dates of birth, mobile phone numbers, as well as email and home addresses.
Fullerton Health emphasised that medical records, health status information, and patients' personal financial data remained protected.
Company response and technical measures
The company became aware of the security breach on 31 October. An official statement regarding the incident was published on 9 November, although the exact number of affected records was not disclosed at that time.
Following the incident, Fullerton Health isolated the server supporting the programme and implemented additional protective measures within the network. The company is currently preparing a new server for the registration portal; the old server will not be reused.
Security monitoring service provider Logicalis stated that during a previous audit, it did not detect any signs of anomalies or security breaches among the IT assets of Fullerton Health under its control.
Worker notifications and regulator assessment
Workers whose records were affected by the incident were notified twice through their employers. Additionally, Singapore's Ministry of Manpower sent direct messages via the FWMOMCare app in the languages spoken by the workers. They were advised to be cautious of unsolicited emails, calls, and messages requesting personal data.
Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission noted that preliminary data indicates opportunistic attacks exploiting common vulnerabilities in IT systems. According to the regulator's assessment, there is no apparent link between this incident and other recent data breaches.
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