35YO Arrested For Leaking Number of COVID-19 Cases & Retrieving Patient’s Records Without Authorisation

IG Story is the best possible invention when it comes to letting people know about your daily life.

But when it comes to keeping secrets?

IG story’s worse than my mother.

Reader Bao: That time, your mom was telling me how you peed in your bed when you were eight years old.

See?

Plenty of people have been dragged screaming into hot water by IG story, including three teenagers who thought it was fun to spit from the fourth floor of a shopping mall, and a woman who thought it’s funny to show how her boy toy abuses a cat.

And now, a 35-year-old lady working as a civil servant might be in trouble too.

What Happened

On 16 Apr 2020, our neighbourhood-friendly men in blue received a report from a concerned member of the public.

The person had come across an IG story that announced the number of Covid-19 cases for that day (728).

Sounds perfectly normal, except the Ministry of Health (MOH) has not announced the numbers yet.

Either the information got leaked or the one who posted the IG story should be invited to tell fortunes on Singapore’s CNY shows from now on.

Turns out, it was the first.

Reader Bao: Dayum, I was about to make a note on my calendar to go look for him or her when Singapore Pools open again.

Betrayed By A Friend

After investigating, it was found that a 35-year-old civil servant allegedly leaked the daily number to a private WeChat group with her friends.

Friends who were not supposed to get the information.

And instead of keeping it to themselves, they disseminated the information before MOH could get to announcing it to Singapore (and the world).

What a beautiful friendship they have.

And It Gets Worse

After further investigations, the police found that 16 Apr wasn’t the only time she did it.

She had done the deed several times.

Not only that, but she also accessed a Government Covid-19 database and retrieve confidential information on a patient to give to her friend.

Further investigations are ongoing.

The Reason Why MOH Released Daily Figures Earlier Now

Last week, MOH lodged a police report, saying that their data could’ve been leaked to members of the public.

The police have been investigating since then.

MOH had also started releasing preliminary numbers in the afternoon instead of leaving it to the evening update.

People Who Share Leaked Information Can Also Be Punished

So, you think, “if I did not sign any Official Secrets Act, it doesn’t matter if I share stuff I accidentally came across, right?”

Wrong.

That’s just like saying, if I come across a dying person, if I kill him, I’m not the murderer, right?

According to the police, anyone who leaked the confidential information, even if they didn’t sign any official documents, can still be held liable under the OSA.

For those who signed and breach their OSA, they can be jailed up to two years, fined up to $2,000, or both.