Printing vendor hit by ransomware attack engaged by ELD for GE2025; election operations not affected

SINGAPORE – A printing vendor that suffered a ransomware attack recently has been engaged to print poll cards and ballot papers, among other services, for the upcoming general election, but related operations have not been affected, said the Elections Department (ELD).

In a media reply, ELD said on April 8 that it has so far not given the voter data for GE2025 to Toppan Next Tech (TNT), and has worked with the vendor to enhance its processes for the upcoming election to minimise any risks from the cyber-security incident.

“ELD will monitor the situation closely and work with TNT to safeguard the integrity of GE-related operations,” its spokesperson said.

TNT was

the target of a ransomware attack on April 1

that affected two of its banking clients – DBS Bank and the Bank of China’s Singapore branch – and compromised the data of more than 11,000 customers from the two banks.

Upon learning of the data breach at TNT, ELD said it took immediate steps to investigate whether any operations related to the department had been compromised. Preliminary investigations do not indicate that any data was affected, it said.

Toppan reported the attack to the Personal Data Protection Commission on the evening of April 6, and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore is assisting the firm with investigations, while also advising it on containment measures.

Toppan was also an ELD printing vendor for the 2023 Presidential Election, printing poll cards for it.

In 2023, residents of more than 4,800 households in Tanjong Pagar GRC received two poll cards each for the presidential election that year, after the printer erroneously sent out test prints of poll cards together with the correct poll cards.

ELD had apologised for the confusion caused then.