1,355 NUS Society Members’ Personal Data Stolen, Possibly Put on Sale on Dark Web

SINGAPORE – The personal data of 1,355 National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) members has been stolen after the society’s website was hacked early last month, NUSS said on Monday (Nov 1).

When asked by The Straits Times, the university graduate club did not say whether the data involved was encrypted. But it said that affected members had their full NRIC numbers stolen.

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Asked if the names of members were also stolen, NUSS would only say that “NRIC numbers which match the names of 1,355 members” had been accessed.

Some members also had a combination of other details accessed, the society said in an e-mail to affected people on Monday afternoon.

This included their date of birth, nationality, gender, marital status, e-mail address, work and personal phone numbers, work and home addresses, vehicle registration number, university degree details, and membership number.

Other information potentially stolen included food and beverage orders, restaurant and event registrations, and feedback sent through the NUSS website.

Other NRIC details or images, as well as payment card or bank account information, were not part of the data accessed.

NUSS said it was alerted on Oct 8 that an unknown person on the Dark Web – the underbelly of the Internet where hackers trade and communicate – claimed to be selling the personal data of society members. The data was taken from NUSS’ website, which was hosted by a third-party Web hosting provider.

Investigations found that the hacker had carried out a sophisticated attack on the society’s website on Oct 6 and 7, and downloaded some data stored on the NUSS Web server. The main database was not compromised.

The club said it has taken parts of its website offline until they are reviewed, and any security issues have been addressed by the Web hosting provider.

NUSS added that it is “actively reviewing its security measures and processes to ensure an incident like this cannot happen again”.

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The matter has been reported to the Personal Data Protection Commission and the police.

The maximum fine for a data breach is $1 million. But organisations can soon be fined more – up to 10 per cent of their annual turnover in Singapore, or $1 million, whichever is higher. The higher fine is slated to take effect at least 12 months from Feb 1 this year.