The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has released a statement warning the public about duplicates imitating the Ministry’s official corporate website.
MOM is now working to take down one site in particular, www.mom-govn-sg.com, and sent out a message to the public to be aware and alert while online.
“We would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public to remain vigilant and exercise caution when using the Internet, especially for transactional purposes,” the Ministry said through their Facebook account.
To stay safe, MOM advised the public to use only the Ministry’s official website (www.mom.gov.sg) for all related enquiries and transactions. For HR professionals, this means only visiting the official page when looking for information on all employment law matters.
MOM also said that access to the official website remains unaffected and that no data has been compromised.
These imitations emerged previously in November 2013 when MOM uncovered and removed two duplicate websites, www.momgov.sg and www.movgov.sg.
At the time, acting Minister for Manpower, Tan Chuan-Jin, was clear in his warning; “Some feel it is a game and cheer on such activities. It is not. It disrupts all our lives and if substantive sites are really compromised, consequences aren’t always trivial.”
“We will do what we can to keep our systems secure. Defacements are annoying but do not have significant ramifications. Phishing sites are criminal because they try to fool you into giving your data. Serious hacking that entails stealing of information and disruption of systems is dangerous and is something we must defend against.”
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