The individual is said to be an employee of a company managing the Public Cellular Blocking Service (PCBS) of the MCMC.
Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun was quoted by The New Straits Times (NST) as saying they believed the person was an employee of Nuemera Sdn Bhd, which handles the PCBS system.
The massive data breach, believed to affect almost the entire population of Malaysia, was first reported last month by Lowyat.net, a local technology news website. The website said it had received a tip-off that someone was trying to sell huge databases of personal information on its forums.
The breach has been described as one of the largest leaks of customer data in Asia.
Saying the key to answers to the data leak lay in identifying the email account owner, Fuzi added: “We are getting closer to identifying the perpetrator as we have narrowed down the scope of the investigation. We have asked for MCMC’s help to identify the account owner.”
PCBS is used to block lost or stolen mobile phones with its unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.
The NST quoted sources as saying that while the MCMC was trying to identify the holder of the email account, police would also interview Nuemera employees to see if the culprit could be traced that way.
The NST report said Nuemera was established in 2005, and that according to its website, the company had engaged with the United Kingdom Home Office and had gathered a multi-disciplinary team of system engineers, network integrators, call centre operators, and regulatory and law enforcement specialists.
According to the report, senior officers at MCMC confirmed that they had held several discussions with Nuemera over the past few months. However, they declined to state the nature of the discussions.
The NST report said attempts to contact Nuemera for comment proved futile.
The leaked databases comprised mobile phone numbers, identification card numbers, home addresses, IMEI and SIM card data of 46.2 million customers of at least 12 Malaysian mobile phone operators.
The databases are believed to also contain information on more than 80,000 individuals, leaked from records of the Malaysian Medical Council, the Malaysian Medical Association and the Malaysian Dental Association.
Meanwhile, Bernama reported MCMC chief operating officer Mazlan Ismail as saying, “The investigation is almost completed. But to media portals reporting on this issue, I would like to advice, before you speculate, make sure your information is correct. Do not speculate unnecessarily, or be prepared for actions from MCMC.”