Indian national jailed for compromising Singapore State Courts files

Janarthanan Tamil Kovan, a 42-year-old Indian national, has been sentenced to 28 weeks in prison for compromising the security of over 18,000 files belonging to the Singapore State Courts.

While working as a service delivery manager for Lenovo PCCW Solutions and serving as an external IT vendor for the State Courts, Kovan used a government-managed laptop to attempt an international professional IT certification exam. Because his personal laptop was faulty, he used the secure device, which violated both government and company policies.

During the process, Kovan granted remote access to an acquaintance in India. At the time of the connection, the laptop contained 18,016 files. While most were classified as restricted and non-sensitive, one file was classified as restricted and sensitive (high). Kovan pleaded guilty to endangering the safety of government documents under the Official Secrets Act and making unlawful modifications to a government-managed device.