COI public hearings on SingHealth cyber attack to begin on Sept 21

SINGAPORE — The Committee of Inquiry (COI) tasked to look into the cyber attack on public healthcare cluster SingHealth will hold its first public hearing on Friday (Sept 21).

Announcing the dates of the public hearings, the COI secretariat said on Thursday that there will be six sessions scheduled at Court 5A of the Supreme Court over the next fortnight.

The dates and timings of the public hearings may be subject to change, the secretariat said. An updated schedule will be published by 6pm daily at http://mci.gov.sg/coihearings.

DATES AND TIMINGS OF PUBLIC HEARINGS

Sept 21, 9.45am –12.30pm

Sept 24, 2pm – 6pm

Sept 26, 9.30am – 6pm

Oct 2, 10.30am – 6pm

Oct 4, 9.30am – 6pm

Oct 5, 9.30am – 6pm

BACKGROUND

Chaired by retired senior judge Richard Magnus, the COI was convened on July 24 to look into the events and contributing factors leading to the cyber attack on SingHealth's patient database system which occurred on or around June 27.

Apart from Mr Magnus, the other three members of the committee are Mr Lee Fook Sun, executive chairman of cyber-security solutions firm Quann World; Mr T K Udairam, group chief operating officer of healthcare technology firm Sheares Healthcare Management; and Ms Cham Hui Fong, assistant secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.

The COI held its first hearing closed-door on Aug 28. Subsequent hearings will consist of both public and private hearings.

It had previously said that it was in the interests of national security that some hearings would be held behind closed doors, or on camera. Otherwise, the evidence may be exploited to carry out further cyber attacks, for example, or patients' personal data may be revealed.