BANK Negara Malaysia has requested CIMB Group Holdings to appoint a third-party firm to investigate the recent loss of back-up magnetic tapes containing customer data. 

“We have informed a particular institution that they need to appoint an independent company to look at the root cause of the issue. Not only that, it will then look into the processes and see whether any regulatory requirement has been breached,” governor Muhammad Ibrahim told reporters today.

Muhammad was asked on measures taken to address the data loss and whether such a breach of information had taken place at other banks as well.

CIMB revealed last week that the magnetic tapes were lost in transit during routine operations. The bank said it had increased security measures following the data loss, including the suspension of its call centre services. 

The central bank issued a statement on the same day to inform the public that it was aware of the incident and that it had been assured by CIMB that the necessary precautionary measures and mitigation actions had been taken to manage any possible negative impact arising from the loss of the tapes.

Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun was quoted by Bernama as saying that initial investigations showed that the loss of the tapes was due to possible negligence on the part of the bank’s staff. He also ruled out sabotage as the cause. – November 17, 2017.