Singtel Data Reportedly Hacked & Customer Information Might be Compromised

It’s a scary world we live in today.

Because just like riding a motorcycle, you’ll be at risk regardless of whether you’re at fault or not.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Read on.

Singtel Data Reportedly Hacked & Customer Information Might be Compromised

On 11 Feb 2021, Singtel released a media statement, stating that customer information might’ve been compromised.

A third-party file-sharing system used by Singtel, Accellion, has been hacked.

According to the telco, they’ve been using the system to share information internally, as well as with external parties.

This isn’t an isolated incident, it added, Accellion has informed that it was part of a “wider concerted attack” against their users.

Investigating The Depth Of The Breach

Currently, the telco is investigating the depth of the breach.

They are trying to figure out how far the hackers managed to get and will inform affected customers and stakeholders as soon as possible.

It was emphasised that this is a standalone hack for Singtel:

“This is an isolated incident involving a standalone third-party system. Our core operations remain unaffected and sound.”

You can click here to read their media statement in full.

Not The First Time

This isn’t the first time Singtel has suffered through a data breach.

On 11 Feb last year, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) revealed that Singtel was one of seven organisations fined for “flouting the data protection law”.

Then, they were fined S$9,000 for a breach involving the My Singtel app.

In early 2018, when Singtel was migrating its customers to a new billing system, a technical glitch caused the exposure of personal data for 750 of its mobile subscribers.

Out of these, 39 of the exposed subscribers had their personal information accessed by other subscribers over a period of around 11 hours.

Then, PDPC decided that the telco has taken “prompt action” to temporary fix the issue and completed the migration, mitigating further risks.

If you’ve been catching up on the PDPC, especially during the Grab saga, you’ll know that the PDPC looks at two things when such breaches occur:

• What actions were taken at the point in time
• Review to see if there is a risk of the breach happening again

Then, they’ll decide on the consequences the companies will face.

As for the motorcycle analogy? It doesn’t matter how careful you are online.

Because if the organisation you trust with your data screws up, you’re screwed anyway. Agree?

Feature Image: Tang Yan Song / Shutterstock.com