IGP: We’ve strong leads on personal data breach

PETALING JAYA: Police have strong leads on how the personal data of millions of mobile phone users was compromised and who was involved.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the case was complicated but revealed that investigators had pieced together a picture of how the data was breached.

“There is a possibility that this (the breach) occurred after several staff from a company tasked with transferring the data took advantage of the situation,” he told reporters.

“We are working closely with all service providers that were in­­volved to get to the exact source of the breach,” he said at the Police Academy in Cheras after an annual event to honour non-police personnel in the force.

Mohamad Fuzi said Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Investigation Depart­ment was handling investigations.

While not disclosing much on the company, he noted that the company itself was not involved in the breach.

“I can’t reveal everything at the moment, but we have leads as to how it happened. I believe we have identified those involved.

“Our investigations are still ongoing,” he said.

On Oct 19, a data leak was reported on technology news portal lowyat.net after an individual attempted to sell the information for an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin, a form of digital currency.

It is believed to be one of the largest data breaches ever in Malaysia.