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Careers@Gov account holders urged to change passwords in wake of malware infection

SINGAPORE — The Public Service Division (PSD) has urged the 297,000 account holders on its Careers@Gov portal to change their passwords, in the wake of a malware infection in the IT infrastructure of its vendor, Australian company PageUp.

A screengrab of the Careers@Gov site.

A screengrab of the Careers@Gov site.

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SINGAPORE — The Public Service Division (PSD) has urged the 297,000 account holders on its Careers@Gov portal to change their passwords, in the wake of a malware infection in the IT infrastructure of its vendor, Australian company PageUp.

The account holders are either public officers or those who have accessed the portal to apply for a job with the Singapore Public Service, a PSD spokesperson said in response to media queries on Monday (June 11).

The PSD earlier informed Careers@Gov account holders that the malware has been contained and the threat eradicated. PageUp, a human resource software provider, is working with the relevant authorities to determine the extent of the potential data breach, it said.

Account holders are asked to change their account passwords as "an added security measure".

The spokesperson told TODAY that PSD is currently investigating and obtaining more information from PageUp.

In a statement on its website, PageUp's co-founder and chief executive Karen Cariss said it detected unusual activity on its IT infrastructure on May 23. Five days later, it found some indicators that client data may have been compromised.

A forensic investigation with the help of an independent third party is currently ongoing, said Ms Cariss.

In a Frequently Asked Questions section on the incident, PageUp said: "If any personal data has been affected it could include information such as name and contact details." It could also include identification and authentication data such as user names and passwords which are encrypted.

Careers@Gov account holders wondered about the source and nature of the malware infection. Undergraduate Ralph Tan, 22, hopes to know exactly what data has been affected but said he still trusts the PSD to protect his data. "I'm not so worried because I don't think they (the hackers) can do anything with our data," he said.

Fellow undergraduate Justin Chua, 23, who uses the portal to look for internships with Government agencies, said he hoped investments by the authorities in cybersecurity would lead to fewer malware infections and data breaches.

 

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