Singapore’s leader says he is taking the Optus cyberattack seriously but otherwise has distanced the telco’s Singaporean parent company from the huge data breach, emphasising Optus is an Australian-run business.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore had offered technical assistance to deal with the fallout from the breach when he and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke about the cyberattack during their annual leaders’ talks in Canberra on Tuesday.