Janarthanan Tamil Kovan, 42, let an unknown person in India remotely access a government-issued laptop holding more than 18,000 court files. He did it to sit a cybersecurity exam.
A Singapore court has sentenced an Indian national to 28 weeks in jail for putting more than 18,000 State Courts files at risk while working as an external IT vendor. Local media reported the sentencing, which took place on Monday.
Janarthanan Tamil Kovan, 42, pleaded guilty to two charges. The first was endangering the safety of documents belonging to the State Courts and the Government of Singapore, under the Official Secrets Act. The second was making an unlawful modification to a government-managed laptop issued to him. A third charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.
The court heard that no files were transferred during the remote session. Even so, the judge treated the exposure itself as a serious offence.
Who is Janarthanan Tamil Kovan?
Janarthanan was a service delivery manager with Lenovo PCCW Solutions. In June 2024, he was attached to the State Courts as an external IT vendor and led the team that looks after the courts’ cloud systems and applications.
As part of the job, he was given a Lenovo ThinkPad, a government-managed device. Both GovTech’s acceptable use policy and Lenovo’s own policy bar unauthorised access to, or modification of, such laptops.
What happened on 4 August 2025?
That day, Janarthanan wanted to take an exam for a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) certification from an international IT governance body. His own laptop was faulty, so he tried the work laptop instead.
The device was locked down with security controls, and he couldn’t get it to run the way he needed. He then contacted a man he knew as Hari Balan, someone he had chatted with on WhatsApp about IT courses. According to court documents cited by Channel News Asia, Balan’s IP address was in India.
Balan was given remote access to the laptop. At that moment, it held 18,016 files belonging to the State Courts.
What was on the laptop?
Of those files, all but one were classified as restricted and non-sensitive. The remaining one was classified as restricted and sensitive (high). Together, they contained login credentials, secret keys and details of the State Courts’ network architecture.
Prosecutors and the court accepted that the files held no sensitive case-specific information. The concern was what they could unlock. Credentials and network details like these could potentially be used to break into systems that store case information and judges’ notes.
How was it discovered?
On 14 August 2025, a representative from the judiciary’s Corporate Services Division filed a police report about the unauthorised installation of a remote desktop application. The Technology Crime Investigation Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department took over the case.
In September 2025, Janarthanan admitted that his actions had endangered the files, which could have been copied or stolen once the remote connection was live.
What did prosecutors and the defence argue?
Deputy Public Prosecutor Matthew Choo asked for seven to nine months’ jail. He stressed that Janarthanan had been trusted with a laptop containing sensitive information, and that as a team leader he should have known better. Channel News Asia quoted him noting the irony that it was all done to sit an information security exam.
The defence lawyers, S Balamurugan and A Ravidass, asked for three to four months instead. Balamurugan told the court that his client’s wife and two children are in India and that the family is facing financial difficulties.
Why did the judge impose 28 weeks?
District Judge Lorraine Ho pointed to the scale of potential harm. A systemic attack, the court noted, could cause public alarm and fear. The judge also weighed the fact that an unknown foreign party had been allowed access to data on the laptop.
The sentence of 28 weeks landed above the defence’s range and below the prosecution’s.
Why this case matters?
The case shows how a single shortcut by a trusted insider can create risk for an entire institution. Nothing was stolen here, but the court still treated the exposure as a serious matter because the files could have opened doors to far more sensitive systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was sentenced in the Singapore State Courts data breach case?
- Janarthanan Tamil Kovan, a 42-year-old Indian national who worked as an external IT vendor with Lenovo PCCW Solutions.
How long is the jail term?
- 28 weeks.
What did he plead guilty to?
- Endangering the safety of State Courts and Government of Singapore documents under the Official Secrets Act, and making an unlawful modification to a government-managed laptop.
Were any files stolen?
- No files were transferred during the remote session, the court heard.
Why did he give someone remote access?
- He wanted to use the work laptop to take a CISM certification exam because his own laptop was faulty.
