Under certain circumstances, it would be in the national interest to allow the sharing of personal data among law enforcement agencies, Cyber Security Agency chief executive David Koh said.

One scenario is when terrorists are using the Internet to transfer information or share data about an impending attack, and so, there would be an impetus to share this, he said to reporters on the sidelines of the Singapore International Cyber Week.

In the wake of news that Internet company Yahoo allegedly scanned Yahoo Mail accounts in secret after a request from security agency FBI in the United States, Mr Koh was addressing a question on whether Singapore would condone such a move, or would respond to such requests to share personal data among agencies.

He said: “There are competing demands, (for) individual personal data protection, security, and national security ... it’s not so simple ... Under certain circumstances, it would be — in my opinion — in the national interest, in the interest of citizens that information, perhaps of any attack, is allowed to be shared among law enforcement agencies,” he said.

On who would make the call, he said that this is “one of the challenges” to be worked through during the discussion on the Cybersecurity Act. For such investigations, his agency would have to coordinate closely with the Ministry of Home Affairs and work out how to develop operational processes, he added. TAN WEIZHEN