SingHealth attack: COI hearings start on Aug 28
Hearings will be held in public unless they could affect national security or patient confidentiality
Hearings by a Committee of Inquiry (COI) looking into the cyber attack on public hospital cluster SingHealth will begin on Aug 28 and will be held in public, unless they could affect national security or patient confidentiality.
Solicitor-General Kwek Mean Luck has been designated by the Attorney-General to lead evidence in the inquiry into Singapore's worst cyber breach.
It compromised the personal particulars of about 1.5 million patients, including that of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and outpatient prescriptions.
Mr Kwek told the COI some aspects of the investigations have been completed and the Attorney-General Chambers (AGC) will be ready to lead evidence from the first witness.
The COI, convened on July 24 to inquire into the events and contributing factors leading to the breach, disclosed the new developments in a statement yesterday.
Hearings will be held in camera if it is necessary in the interests of national security, where "the evidence may be exploited to carry out further cyber attacks, or where patients' personal data may be revealed".
The Aug 28 hearing will be held in camera, it added.
Expert witnesses will be called by the COI to give evidence on cyber-security measures and hygiene.
The COI will receive public submissions and advise people when and how to submit them.
VISIT
It will also conduct a site visit to SingHealth to be briefed on the network architecture of the affected IT systems and the cyber-security measures before the attacks, which took place between June 27 and July 4.
Singaporeans were told about the breach on July 20.
The COI is headed by former chief district judge and current member of the Public Service Commission Richard Magnus.
The other COI members are executive chairman of cyber-security solutions company Quann World, Mr Lee Fook Sun; group chief operating officer of healthcare technology company Sheares Healthcare Management, Mr T. K. Udairam; and assistant secretary-general of National Trades Union Congress, Ms Cham Hui Fong.
The COI held its first administrative meeting on July 25, the day Mr Magnus met Mr Kwek and discussed the appointment of investigators to help the COIwith matters relevant to the inquiry.
At the first pre-inquiry conference yesterday, Mr Kwek informed the COI the Public Prosecutor had appointed an investigation team, to be led by the Cyber Security Agency and supported by the Criminal Investigation Department, to probe any relevant matters.
Agreeing on the need for thorough investigations, Mr Magnus accepted Mr Kwek's request for time to investigate fully the matters set out in the Terms of Reference, and directed the Solicitor-General to update the COI on the investigations at the next pre-inquiry conference.
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