PARLIAMENT must amend the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 to stop data leaks, Fahmi Fadzil said. 

Despite the number of data leaks in the country, only one case has been tried in the courts, said the Lembah Pantai MP in a statement today. 

“That case involved 30 million personal data from Malindo Air,” he said. 

“The other high-profile data leaks involving more than 70 million user information have not been brought to court.” 

Fahmi said the Communications and Multimedia Ministry has yet to reveal any action on cases involving ministries and government agencies either.

The PKR leader said it is estimated that some 100 million sets of data, involving addresses, personal phone numbers, MyKad details, over the last five years are believed to have been stolen from the various ministries and agencies. 

“I urged the government to explain the latest data leak last month and state the steps that were taken to ensure this does not happen again,” said Fahmi. 

It was reported last month that there were alleged online sales of personal data of more than 22 million Malaysians as well as identity card verification snapshots of 800,000 individuals, belonging to the National Registration Department (NRD) and Election Commission.  

However, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin refuted the purported theft and sale of the data. 

“We (at the ministry) have a mechanism to verify that the leaked data was not from the NRD. 

“As in previous cases, the sale of data involves several agencies, which we have given some leeway (for them) to obtain information from the department,” he told reporters soon after reports emerged of the theft. 

Hamzah said an investigation found that the data sold was a collection of sellers from other sources.

“All individuals involved in the sale of personal data will be called in to assist in the investigation and the findings will be announced soon,” he said. 

To date, nobody from the government has claimed responsibility for the data leak. – June 6, 2022.