KUALA LUMPUR – Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) was only informed of the cybersecurity breach affecting payment gateway iPay88 at the end of July, governor Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said.
Malay Mail Online quoted her saying at a press conference today that investigations are underway and the central bank could take action after its probe is complete.
Nor Shamsiah said iPay88 is not supervised by the central bank, but BNM has been in communication with the company since being informed of the security breach at the end of last month.
She gave her assurance that banks have been told to take precautionary measures to safeguard consumer data.
Nor Shamsiah was commenting on the cybersecurity breach reported by iPay88 yesterday, which appears to have occurred before May 31 and may have compromised card data belonging to millions of users.
BNM said in a statement earlier today that forensic investigations into iPay88’s security breach are ongoing.
It assured that the breach had originated from and is confined to the company’s payment card systems.
“It does not involve vulnerabilities in the banks’ systems,” BNM said.
“In light of this incident, BNM has instructed banks to immediately notify affected cardholders of additional protective measures that will be taken to further protect them against risks of fraudulent or unauthorised transactions.
“Banks have also heightened their fraud risk management and monitoring of suspicious or fraudulent activities for affected cards.”
iPay88 was earlier taken to task by Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, who questioned why the company only informed consumers of the breach yesterday, when it had happened more than two months ago.
The online payment provider did not state when the breach occurred, only mentioning that it commenced an investigation on May 31 with the help of cybersecurity experts.
It also said the “containment process” was successfully completed and there has been no further suspicious activity since July 20. – The Vibes, August 12, 2022
