IT team lead attached to State Courts installed remote desktop app risking 18,000 files, gets jail
Janarthanan Tamil Kovan had granted his foreign acquaintance remote access to the government-managed laptop as Janarthanan wanted to use it to take a cyber security examination.
IT team lead Janarthanan Tamil Kovan, 42, was sentenced to 28 weeks in jail for putting over 18,000 restricted files at risk by installing a remote desktop app. Kovan, an Indian national and service delivery manager at Lenovo PCCW Solutions, was attached to the State Courts as an external IT vendor in June 2024. He was a team leader for the State Courts' cloud system team, managing various systems and applications.
Using his government-managed laptop, Kovan granted remote access to an acquaintance, risking protected files including login credentials and secret keys. The laptop was equipped with GovTech's and Lenovo's security policies prohibiting unauthorized access and modifications. On August 4, 2025, Kovan downloaded and installed UltraViewer, a remote desktop application, to resolve a security check issue during a certification exam.
However, three files were executed, tampering with the laptop's firewall and anti-virus. The SEED team was alerted, and Kovan denied involvement, later confessing in a statement. No data exfiltration occurred.
Written by urgent.news from Channel News Asia's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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