Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Azam Baki said the service of the staff member was terminated several years ago.
“It is believed that this staff member had access to the immigration database system and had allowed the syndicate to steal the passwords used by immigration officers.
“The syndicate members used various equipment, such as a router, to hack into the system.
“They were able to duplicate the software and print the PLKS without going inside the immigration office,” he told a press conference on Op Hack at the MACC headquarters here today.
Azam said at 9pm yesterday, MACC had frozen 147 accounts amounting to RM9.9 million involving 30 individuals and 11 companies allegedly involved in the syndicate.
Meanwhile, Immigration Department director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said the department set up a special team in the middle of last year to gather more information after receiving a tip-off.
The department believed the hacking of the immigration database was done on a large scale and sought MACC’s assistance to further probe the matter.
“The special team has done its intelligence work and this led to the discovery of the syndicate. The home ministry has also taken note of this issue.
“To address this problem, the government has approved a new system called the National Integrated Immigration System (NIIS) to replace the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs), which was found to have been manipulated and misused to fulfil the foreign workers’ quota,” he said.
Khairul said the new system would be launched later this month and would take a year to be fully operational.
Yesterday, the MACC crippled the PLKS forgery syndicate by arresting five individuals, including a man with a “Datuk” title, in a large-scale operation.
The arrest of the five suspects also succeeded in solving the problem faced by the Immigration Department, which had its PLKS system hacked into by the syndicate.
Earlier today, the Shah Alam magistrates’ court issued a six-day remand order against the five suspects, aged between 33 and 42, to facilitate further investigations into the case.
The remand order was issued by magistrate Fatina Amyra Abdul Jalil upon an application from the MACC.