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No internet on Singapore public servants' computers in May next year

Xinhua, June 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Public servants in Singapore will not be able to access internet through their official computers from May next years, local media reported on Wednesday.

The move is in a bid to prevent potential leaks from work e-mail and shared documents amid heightened security threats, the Strait Times reported, adding that the new policy will affect about 100,000 computers in use by the public service.

"The Singapore Government regularly reviews our IT measures to make our network more secure," a spokesman for Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) told the Strait Times.

Trials have already started with some employees within the IDA in April, which only allows the employees to use their own tablets or mobiles to link to the internet because "these devices do not have access to government e-mail systems". Dedicated Internet terminals have been issued to those who need them for work.

The report said that employees are allowed to forward work e-mails to their private accounts if they need to.

The new move also stirred some concern, which Aloysius Cheang, Asia-Pacific executive vice-president of global computing security association Cloud Security Alliance, said it marks a return to the 1990s, when Internet access was available only on dedicated terminals. Endit