KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 ― The official Halal Portal of Malaysia was hacked last weekend and it was taken down temporarily. The incident which took place on December 9, 2023 was confirmed by Jakim’s Halal Facebook page.

On Saturday night, it announced that the official Halal portal was inaccessible due to technical issues. Users who wish to check on the Halal status of a product or premise are advised to use their Verify Halal and Smart Halal app which are available from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Yesterday, the official Facebook page posted an update confirming that their portal was hacked on Saturday. It mentioned that the portal was taken down immediately so that JAKIM’s ICT team could conduct its investigation and carry out its safety measures. They added that they have also stepped up its portal’s security measures to prevent the incident from reoccurring.

The official statement said the cybersecurity incident did not affect the process for Halal certification in Malaysia and the industry can still submit their certification application as normal. Users can still use their official apps to verify a product’s or premise’ halal status.

As shared on Reddit, the hacker left a message telling the website admin that their security is weak. It appears that there’s a vulnerability that was exploited easily.

At the time of writing, Jakim has restored the web portal but users must access it via a different URL: https://www.halal.gov.my/v4. If you visit via the main URL, you’ll be instructed to click on the banner or the link to go to the "/v4 section”.

This isn’t the first time the Halal portal has been hacked. Last September, the website was defaced and turned into an online gambling website. ― SoyaCincau