Jail for man who allowed unlawful remote connection to government-managed laptop

Janarthanan Tamil Kovan, 42, was sentenced to 28 weeks’ jail on Sept 28 after he pleaded guilty to one count each of misusing a computer system and an offence under the Official Secrets Act.

ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

Published Sep 28, 2026, 09:10 PM

Updated Sep 28, 2026, 09:10 PM

Janarthanan Tamil Kovan attached to the State Courts as an external vendor made an unlawful modification to a government-managed laptop issued to him.

An unauthorised person then accessed it remotely, and Janarthanan's offence endangered the safety of 18,016 files belonging to the State Courts.

He was sentenced to 28 weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to one count each of misusing a computer system and an offence under the Official Secrets Act.

SINGAPORE – A man attached to the State Courts as an external info-communication technology (IT) vendor made an unlawful modification to a government-managed laptop issued to him, allowing an unauthorised person to access it remotely.

This compromised the safety of more than 18,000 files belonging to the State Courts, although no exfiltration took place during the remote connection.

Ironically, he committed the offences as he wanted to use the government-managed laptop to take an examination in information security, as his personal laptop had a faulty screen.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Matthew Choo said: “While the files themselves did not contain any sensitive case-specific information, (they) contained information that could potentially be used to gain unauthorised access to various systems that contained sensitive and confidential information, such as case information and judges’ notes.”

Court documents stated that Janarthanan, an Indian national, was employed as a service delivery manager with IT firm Lenovo PCCW Solutions in 2017.

In June 2024, he was attached to the State Courts as an external vendor, and was a team leader of its cloud system team, which managed the various systems and applications there.

He was issued with the government-managed laptop, which contained 18,016 files belonging to the State Courts, including the login credentials of the State Courts’ network.

The laptop was protected by the GovTech’s Security Suite for Engineering Endpoint Devices (SEED), a mobile device management platform.

On Aug 4, 2025, Janarthanan tried to use the laptop to take an examination to obtain certification as a “Certified Information Security Manager”.

However, the laptop was unable to clear the necessary security checks.

Janarthanan then reached out for help from a man identified as “Hari Balan”, whom he had previously communicated with on WhatsApp about IT-related courses.

Hari Balan asked Janarthanan to download “UltraViewer” onto the laptop, so Hari Balan could remotely access and control the device.

Janarthanan did as he was told, and a remote connection was later established between the laptop and another device with an internet protocol address traced to India.

During the remote connection, Hari Balan transferred several files into the laptop.

Subsequently, GovTech’s SEED team was alerted to the presence of the files on the laptop and contacted Janarthanan.

Janarthanan falsely denied the running of UltraViewer and claimed that the laptop was unresponsive.

The team later reported the incident to the Government IT Security Incident Response (GITSIR).

To cover his tracks, Janarthanan cleared the laptop’s browsing history on Aug 5, 2025.

Two days later, he also deleted the UltraViewer application folder.

He did so before handing over the laptop to GITSIR

He was later arrested in June 2026.

Following this incident, the State Courts’ Innovation, Technology and Transformation Division undertook a change of all implicated security keys.

Immediate mitigation measures were also employed, including password changes.

Additionally, the State Courts also conducted a review of their systems and traffic logs to ensure that no anomalies, unauthorised accesses or data exfiltration had occurred.

In a statement, the Singapore Courts said: “Upon discovery of the suspicious activity, (we) took immediate steps to secure our systems and worked closely with the relevant authorities.

“There was no loss of court documents, and no unauthorised access to our documents or systems was detected.”

Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.

42岁的Janarthanan Tamil Kovan于9月28日被判处28周监禁，此前他承认犯有一项滥用计算机系统罪和一项违反《官方保密法》的罪行。

《海峡时报》摄影：KELVIN CHNG

发布于2026年9月28日晚上9:10

更新于2026年9月28日晚上9:10

隶属于州法院的外部供应商 Janarthanan Tamil Kovan 对其政府配发的笔记本电脑进行了非法修改。

随后，一名未经授权的人员远程访问了该文件，Janarthanan 的违法行为危及了国家法院 18,016 份文件的安全。

他承认犯有一项滥用计算机系统罪和一项违反《官方保密法》的罪行，被判处 28 周监禁。

新加坡——一名作为外部信息通信技术 (IT) 供应商受雇于国家法院的男子，非法修改了政府发给他的笔记本电脑，导致未经授权的人员能够远程访问该电脑。

虽然远程连接期间没有发生数据泄露，但这危及了州法院 18,000 多份文件的安全。

具有讽刺意味的是，他之所以犯下这些罪行，是因为他想使用政府管理的笔记本电脑参加信息安全考试，因为他自己的笔记本电脑屏幕坏了。

副检察官Matthew Choo表示：“虽然这些文件本身不包含任何敏感的案件具体信息，但（它们）包含的信息可能被用于未经授权访问各种包含敏感和机密信息的系统，例如案件信息和法官笔记。”

法庭文件显示，印度公民 Janarthanan 于 2017 年受雇于 IT 公司 Lenovo PCCW Solutions，担任服务交付经理。

2024 年 6 月，他作为外部供应商被派往州法院，担任其云系统团队的负责人，该团队负责管理那里的各种系统和应用程序。

他被配发了一台政府管理的笔记本电脑，其中包含 18,016 个属于州法院的文件，包括州法院网络的登录凭证。

该笔记本电脑受到 GovTech 的工程终端设备安全套件 (SEED) 的保护，SEED 是一个移动设备管理平台。

2025 年 8 月 4 日，Janarthanan 试图使用笔记本电脑参加考试，以获得“注册信息安全经理”认证。

然而，这台笔记本电脑未能通过必要的安全检查。

随后，贾纳塔南向一位名叫“哈里·巴兰”的男子寻求帮助，他之前曾通过 WhatsApp 与此人就 IT 相关课程进行过交流。

哈里·巴兰要求贾纳塔南在笔记本电脑上下载“UltraViewer”，以便哈里·巴兰可以远程访问和控制该设备。

Janarthanan 按照指示做了，之后笔记本电脑与另一台互联网协议地址指向印度的设备建立了远程连接。

在远程连接过程中，哈里·巴兰将几个文件传输到了笔记本电脑上。

随后，GovTech 的 SEED 团队得知笔记本电脑上存在这些文件，并联系了 Janarthanan。

Janarthanan 否认运行 UltraViewer，并声称笔记本电脑没有反应。

该团队随后向政府信息技术安全事件响应部门（GITSIR）报告了这起事件。

为了掩盖自己的行踪，Janarthanan 于 2025 年 8 月 5 日清除了笔记本电脑的浏览历史记录。

两天后，他又删除了 UltraViewer 应用程序文件夹。

在将笔记本电脑交给 GITSIR 之前，他这样做了。

他后来于 2026 年 6 月被捕。

事件发生后，州法院创新、技术和转型部门对所有涉事安全密钥进行了更换。

同时采取了紧急缓解措施，包括更改密码。

此外，州法院还对其系统和流量日志进行了审查，以确保没有发生异常情况、未经授权的访问或数据泄露。

新加坡法院在一份声明中表示：“发现可疑活动后，（我们）立即采取措施保护我们的系统，并与相关部门密切合作。

“没有丢失任何法庭文件，也没有发现任何未经授权访问我们文件或系统的情况。”

沙菲克·阿尔哈提卜是《海峡时报》的法庭记者，主要报道国家法院审理的刑事案件。