A tiered model of Internet access will be rolled out for the healthcare sector, should a virtual browser solution that is being tested prove effective, Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong said yesterday.
It could be the best solution for staff whose jobs require access to the Internet and the healthcare group’s internal network to be provided on the same device, Mr Gan told Parliament.
But those whose jobs do not need Internet access will continue to remain out of it, he said, citing administrative staff doing back-end tasks.
Likewise, staff who can access the Web via a separate device like a mobile phone, he added.
Mr Gan made these points in a ministerial statement on the actions his ministry will take following the cyber attack on the database of Singapore’s largest healthcare cluster, SingHealth.
Hackers stole the data of 1.5 million patients and the outpatient prescription details of 160,000 people, including those of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The minister said a virtual browser will allow access to the Internet through strictly controlled and monitored client servers, and his ministry had been experimenting with the solution before the cyber attack.
CRITICAL PART…
