He said concerns were raised recently over alleged data breaches at the National Registration Department (JPN) and the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), and also over the issue of stolen data being sold on the internet.

“Before the data is posted on the internet, it goes through the deep and dark web,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Latiff said that even though there were laws under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and the police to deal with cybersecurity, specific laws were needed to stop data leaks involving government sites.

“I will present a Cabinet paper next week to ensure that government and private data is protected, ” he said.

He said the laws would also look at the processes and technology used in the dark web.

Recently, police said they had started an investigation into an alleged database leak involving JPN and LHDN.

It was reported that the database had information on about four million Malaysians and was put on sale at a well-known marketplace forum.

LHDN has said that based on internal investigations, it did not find any data leak from its side.

The dark web is a hidden collection of internet sites only accessible by a specialised web browser. It is often associated with criminal activity of various degrees and is used for keeping internet communications anonymous.