KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — Official records of over 22 million Malaysians allegedly from the National Registration Department have been offered for just US$10,000 (RM43,000) online, according to a technology news site.

Lowyat.Net reported that the leak first appeared online last month on "a well-known database marketplace forum”, with the information offered said to cover Malaysians born between 1940 and 2004.

The report said the database was purported to be 160GB large and containing fields such as the person’s name, IC number, address, date of birth, gender, race, religion, mobile number, and Base54-based photo.

The seller also posted the details of Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin to demonstrate the authenticity of the database.

The source of the data quoted by the seller was myIDENTITI API, which allows government agencies such as NRD to access the personal data of Malaysians.

The seller had also reportedly mentioned the alleged data leak of September last year, in which the NRD denied that the data of four million Malaysians was listed for sale on a website that the United States has since taken down.