The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said this seemed to be the situation with the pointless answer given by Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia Jailani Johari in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
“Jailani’s comment, asking people to change their passwords every three months, not to click on unverified links and not to share personal data on social media, is dangerously simplistic.
“It avoids the government’s role in ensuring our cyber security. Taking those precautionary measures would have done nothing to protect Malaysians from having their personal data being sold,” Pua said in a statement.
The deputy minister’s answer was in response to a question on the steps taken by the government in the case which involved leakage of confidential personal data.
The question was in reference to the recent revelation that a leak had compromised the personal data of over 46.2 million mobile phone and virtual network operator subscribers in the country.
The leak is believed to have occurred during the data transfer process at a telco.
Technology news site lowyat.net had reported that the leak included postpaid and prepaid numbers, customer details, addresses and SIM card information.
The data was reported to have been from various telcos including DiGi, Celcom, Maxis, Tunetalk, Redtone and Altel.
Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun had reportedly said it was possible that some of the company’s employers were trying to take advantage of the situation during the data transfer.
Pua accused the government of trying to cover up the scandal rather than dealing with the issue at root.
“Rather than assuring people of an investigation, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s first move was to take down the initial news report of the sale,” he said, referring to the lowyat.net report.
“Then, last week, it blocked the website sayakenahack.com which allowed users to key in their IC numbers to check if their details had been found in the data breached from Malaysian telco companies.
“The question that keeps re-emerging is who the government is really protecting with these measures.”
Pua called for the the government to protect everyday Malaysians, and get data holders to improve their own standards
“The government should not be passively monitoring and not acting on these severe breaches.
“What’s worrying is that Malaysia was revealed last year, in a survey done by global cyber-security firm Kaspersky Labs, as having the most compromised servers in Southeast Asia,” Pua said.
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