What individuals, private sector should do

While Singapore is moving away from the use of masked NRIC numbers, it does not mean that they should be widely shared.

- Osmond Chia

Here are some pointers from Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo's ministerial statement for individuals, private sector organisations and public agencies, following the widespread disclosure of NRIC numbers on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority's Bizfile portal in December.

INDIVIDUALS

Individuals who include parts of their NRIC number in their passwords should update them immediately to make it harder for fraudsters to exploit those numbers to access privileged information or services.

Those who have used their NRIC number as a password to access any information or service have wrongly used it as an authenticator.

Modern technology has made it easy to decipher the full NRIC number from a partial or masked number, making its use vulnerable.