ONLINE forum Lowyat.net has confirmed that 46.2 million handphone numbers from Malaysian telcos were leaked in a data breach incident in 2014.

In a post today, the online forum revealed details of the October 19 leak of personal information between May and July 2014.

“The leak included postpaid and prepaid numbers, customer details, addresses as well as SIM card information.

“We have shared all details regarding the data that we uncovered, as well as how we obtained all the data with the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) last week,” the post read.

The post also included a list of telcos affected, with Digi Prepaid being the most leaked (11,411,815), followed by Celcom Prepaid (10,548,183) and Maxis Hotlink (9,562,019).

The October 19 data breach not only affected telco companies, but the Malaysian Medical Council (61,062), Malaysian Medical Association (15,965) and Malaysian Dental Association (4,282) as well.

“These medical databases included personal information, MyKad numbers, mobile/work/home phone numbers, as well as work and residential addresses.”

Lowyat.net urged the service providers to take action to protect those affected by the breach.

“While it is the task of the authorities to narrow down the source of the breach and ensure that similar incidents do not recur, the key to containing any more serious damage is protecting individuals affected by the breach.” – October 30, 2017.