KUALA LUMPUR: The government is planning to table a specific law to strengthen cybersecurity in the country.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Special Functions) Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said although the country has related laws like the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 2010, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) 1988 and the Police Act 1967, there was a need for a specific law to deal with cybersecurity matters.
"The matter is being discussed and I will table a cabinet memorandum on it to ensure all data belonging to the government and private companies will continue to be protected.
"We must look at how the law can strengthen and reinforce data protection from all sides such as the processes and technology," he told the Dewan Rakyat during the ministry's winding-up speech on the 12th Malaysia Plan here today.
Abdul Latiff was replying to Wong Shu Qi (Pakatan Harapan-Kluang), who had expressed concern over an alleged attempt to sell personal data from the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) on a hacker forum as reported last month.
Recently, police said they had started an investigation into an alleged database leak of reportedly 32GB worth of data in 19 files containing the information of those born between 1979 and 1998, with details such as addresses, mobile numbers and photographs, as well as race, religion and MyKad identification numbers involving NRD and LHDN.
Last week, LHDN said that based on internal investigations, it did not find any data leak from its side, adding that it is the only user of and not the owner of the myIDENTITY system which is a platform for NRD to share data with other government agencies.
