KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 — The leaked data in December last year involving some 13 million account holders did not match data stored by Astro and Maybank, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today.

He said this matter was confirmed through a verification process done by CyberSecurity Malaysia through its investigation of the alleged leakage.

“Personal Data Protection Department (PDPD) in collaboration with CyberSecurity Malaysia has conducted an investigation.

“The results of the investigation on the Election Commission (EC) has been submitted to the National Cyber Security Agency, Prime Minister’s Department, which is responsible for regulating cyber security issues,” Fahmi said in a Parliamentary written reply yesterday.

He was responding to a question by DAP’s Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan, who asked the government for an update on the investigation conducted by CyberSecurity Malaysia and PDPD into an alleged data leak involving account holders from the local broadcaster and bank, and also the EC last December, and the government’s action taken to protect private information in public agencies’ database.

On December 22, an X (formerly Twitter) user by the handle Pendakwah Teknologi posted an online thread on a forum titled "13 Millions Malaysian Bank Leak (MayBank, SPR, Astro)” [sic].

The post attached several photos that showed lists of personal information such as names, addresses and phone numbers purportedly of account holders from Astro, Maybank and the EC, better known by its Malay abbreviation SPR.

On December 30, Astro denied that its customers’ personal information was leaked in the alleged data leak incident.

In September, PDPD director-general Mohd Nazri Kama reportedly said that Malaysia has recorded its highest number of data breach cases this year, with an all-time high of 15 reported cases a week involving mainly ransomware attacks.

He said PDPD had received reports of 130 cases up to June this year, revealing a four-fold increase when only 30 such cases were recorded for the entire 2022 — and that the pattern had been steadily increasing since 2016.