DETAILS OF ORGAN DONORS LEAKED
Cops to probe source of report on data leak that involves 220,000 pledgers, says IGP
POLICE want to know how administrators of an online forum found out about a data breach involving 220,000 organ donors and their next of kin.
They are investigating whether the report on the leak came from the same source which exposed another data breach that involved 46 million mobile pohone users recently.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department was investigating the report.
“Previously, Lowyat.net had reported on the data leak involving 46 million telco users. Now, the same forum has revealed another data breach. Part of the investigation is to find out if the latest report came from the same source,” he said after launching the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) investigation guideline at Sogo here.
It was reported on Tuesday that personal details of pledgers and their next of kin, such as MyKad numbers, home addresses and telephone numbers, had been leaked online since September 2016.
The same website earlier reported that the personal data of 46 million Malaysian telco users were being sold online.
On the latest progress of the investigation on the data leak involving telco users, Fuzi said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was probing the case.
He said police were only assisting MCMC.
Khalidah Mohd Darus, commissioner of the Personal Data Protection Department under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, said the department was investigating the case under the Personal Data Protection Act of 2010(Act 709).
Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak told the New Straits
Times that those found guilty of the crime would face legal action.
He urged those handling such data and databases to reinforce their security systems to prevent leaks and misuse of information.
The report on the latest data leak revealed that the actual number of records leaked was doubled to 440,000 as the leaked data included personal details of the organ donors’ next of kin.
It said the leaked files, updated up to Aug 31, 2016, included details from government hospitals as well as the National Transplant Resource Centres across Malaysia.
The online forum, in its report, said this meant that the information was retrieved from a central database, and that the files were first uploaded online to a popular file-sharing service on Sept 29, 2014.
It stated that all data from 1997 to 2008 was autofilled with dummy data rendering the dump useless.
However, it added, the data dump from January 2009 to August 2016, carried complete personal details of 220,000 organ donors and their next of kin.
The report said the file dump included a yearly breakdown of demographic data of the organ pledgers by sex, race, origin, types of organs, as well as age groups.
Lowyat.net also stated that it alerted the Personal Data Protection Department of the alleged data leak before the report was published.