KOTA BARU – The government has found a lead regarding the alleged data theft of civil servant e-payslips and a statement will be made by the National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa) soon.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the government has held several meetings and discussions as it views the data leak and theft seriously.
“In the case of alleged data theft involving e-payslips and such, we have agreed that not many should issue statements, as we do not want to distract from current investigations.
“We have agreed that whatever updates there are need to be issued by Nacsa and the Prime Minister’s Department, so what I can say is that we have certain leads and follow-up action is being taken,” he told reporters here today.
Annuar said his ministry was developing a framework to improve or curb issues of data theft as it is a worldwide issue.
“I want to state this because many misunderstand the matter. Data theft involving personal data under the supervision of private companies are included under the Personal Data Protection Act, and managed under the Data Protection Department under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.
“Data from ministerial departments and institutions are not under the Data Protection Department, but under Nacsa and the Prime Minister’s Department.
“The alleged e-payslip breach is under Nacsa, but CyberSecurity Malaysia under the ministry will provide assistance in terms of forensics investigation,” he added.
Media outlets had reported earlier on an incident of alleged data theft, where hackers claiming to be from a “grey hat” cybersecurity organisation alleged that they had breached the civil servant e-payslip system to expose its weakness.
The group claimed that it could access over a million rows of identities via the database, which is in JSON and CSV format. – Bernama, September 18, 2022
