Data breach in Singapore could undermine banks' health



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Singapore banks should monitor the fallout from the violation of the island's health data.

The National Electronic Health Record project takes a break after hackers stole data on 1.5 million patients, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was targeted "specifically and repeatedly."

The immediate repercussions for banks are already evident, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore advising lenders not to rely solely on the full name, the national identification number, the address, the bad, race and date of birth. Although the introduction of additional security levels, such as one-time pbadwords or biometric identification, entails additional costs, most banks in Singapore have already put in place such technologies. based. Their biggest concern should be MyInfo.

In April, Standard Chartered Plc and the three banks in Singapore – DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. – have launched a pilot program to exploit this state. – a digital repository of citizen information for your customers, or KYC, for opening bank accounts. The idea is to possibly use MyInfo profiles to issue credit cards, home loans and insurance policies.

Each DBS digital customer is three times more important for its financial results than a brick-and-mortar type customer. Singapore's "Smart Nation" project, which is considering KYC Paperless and a cashless company, has spurred OCBC to halve cashier jobs in the city and recycle excess staff for digital banking services. 2020. Should the authorities rethink Smart? Nation's security features, investor expectations of returns for Singaporean bank shareholders may also need to be lowered.

The other impact could be the mix. Singapore's regulators have eased post-1998 restrictions on the ownership of non-financial firms by banks to enable them to compete with financial technology players. DBS has invested in a real estate market and in a digital platform for the purchase and sale of cars; UOB has gone into vacation planning, while OCBC is pampering new moms online.

The main goal of banks is to possess rich and varied customer data. However, as a result of the violation of SingHealth, confidentiality and security must necessarily be examined more closely. It's one thing for Facebook Inc. to be on the lookout for such concerns, and another for systemically important banks in a large financial center to face similar problems because of their disagreement with e-commerce.

Now that a widely publicized hack has materialized, other incidents have also appeared. The Straits Times reported that data on 70,000 members of the Association of Investors in Securities of the Island were stolen five years ago – and they only learned about it this week.

However, there is a positive side to all this. In order to preserve the confidence of the citizens and to preserve the reputation of its financial sector, Singapore will increase its investments in cybersecurity. This is good news for startups that will be spawned by initiatives like that between Ben Gurion University of Israel and the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The goal of their researchers is to repel cyberattacks by mimicking the way the human body fights germs.

Seven years ago, global banks that ran large front-office and back-office operations in Singapore did not understand the seriousness of the anxiety. among Singaporeans even after voters sent a strong message in the 2011 general election. Since then, strict controls on foreign worker visas have affected all industries, including banks. The theft of the Prime Minister's health records may be another defining moment.

If they read tea leaves, banks should set up private equity funds that invest in high-tech cybersecurity start-ups. It would be a much better use of their resources than to peddle cars and used diapers.

To contact the author of this story: Andy Mukherjee at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker [email protected]

Or at least a company that uses "less money and more electronic payments", as said the Minister of Education, Yong Ye Kung, a member of the Board of Directors of the Ministry of Education. Monetary Authority of Singapore.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andy Mukherjee is a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion covering industrial companies and financial services. He was previously a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. He also worked for Straits Times, ET NOW and Bloomberg News

© 2018 Bloomberg L.P.

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