CYBER ATTACK
Malaysia sees biggest data breach at 46.2 million mobile information
Malaysia has become the latest victims of the telecom data breach that threatened to leak around 46.2 million postpaid and prepaid phone subscribers’ information. The alleged data breach is more than the overall population of Malaysia which recorded 32 million people.
![Malaysia sees biggest data breach at 46.2 million mobile information](https://d23vnjd1yg7tth.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/apple-iphone-wifi-hacking.png)
Malaysia has become the latest victims of the telecom data breach that threatened to leak around 46.2 million postpaid and prepaid phone subscribers’ information. The alleged data breach is more than the overall population of Malaysia which recorded 32 million people.
The breach came to surface after an individual tried to sell the data over website forums two weeks ago and discovered that the information was already available for download for free. Thus, this alerted a local technology news website, named lowyat.net on 19 October 2017.
The Malaysian authorities are still investigating the breach, involving the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as well as with police through the Commercial Crime Investigation Department.
Nothing much the consumers can do
Despite the massive ongoing investigation on the telecom breach, there is not much that consumers could do at the moment except changing their SIM cards. As the breach meant that subscribers’ private details such as home address, MyKad numbers, IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity) and the IMEI (international Mobile Equipment Identity) were all revealed in the data leak.
Various personal data from associations like the Malaysian Medical Council, Malaysian Medical Association, Academy of Medicine Malaysia, Malaysian Housing Loan Applications, Malaysian Dental Association, National Specialist Register of Malaysia and Jobstreet.com were leaked as well. The leaked information were then offered up for sale for an undisclosed amount in bitcoin.
Street-smartness to prevent follow up scams
There is no use crying over spill milk, after the data breach the affected subscribers should be more street wise in receiving calls and messages from strangers. In the same time, the users be more cautious in dealing someone calling in or messaging on behalf of the telco for money transfer or installing “telco applications”, which may consist of malwares or spywares. The scammers may use other creative ways to trick users in revealing more information like on financial credits cards and so on.
Nation under siege
Apparently, the whole nation of Malaysia is affected by this data breach and one may point similar incidents of data breaches and cyber-attacks that occurred over the commercial world, like Equifax, Deloitte and Hilton hotel.
Perhaps now we have entered the norm of hacker targeting commercial institutions for useful personal information then follow-up for scams to obtain monetary returns. Thus, gone are the days where robbers broke in brick and mortars, the modern robbery just got more personal, to mobile phones and credit information. To safeguard ourselves, old school values still work – be wise in sharing information and don’t talk to strangers if possible.
BREAKING NEWS
Ransom attacks on high profile Instagram accounts
![Ransom attacks on high profile Instagram accounts](https://d23vnjd1yg7tth.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/instagram-ransom.jpg)
Ransom attacks on high profile Instagram accounts. There has been wave of attacks in which hackers demand bitcoin in order for the Instagram user to get their account back, they threaten to delete the account if the ransom isn’t paid.
There have been several victims of this attack, and they all claim to have received the same message from an attacker named “Pumpam”. The message lets the victim know that the hackers have possession of the account, and to email a particular address in order to start the recovery. It also mentions that the account will be deleted within 3 hours if there is no response.
Victims of the attack found that they could not recover the account through Instagram, as the account’s email address had been changed. This frustration and desperation to get possession of their accounts lead some users to pay the ransom. However, this wasn’t always successful, with some victims claiming that their account was still deleted.
Many of the victims feel let down by Instagram after they didn’t play an active role in helping them gain control of their accounts. Victims felt frustrated dealing with Instagram’s customer support when they only received generic responses to the issue, however this changed when vice’s tech arm Motherboard contacted Instagram about the issue and helped the users get possession back.
At present few details are known about the hacking campaign, including the hacker’s identities and where they are from. We urge Instagram users to be vigilant about their account security, make sure you have a secure password, that you back up your content in the event it is deleted, and don’t click on any nefarious looking links.
Photo by Katka Pavlickova on Unsplash
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BREAKING NEWS
50 Million accounts exposed after Facebook security breach
![50 Million accounts exposed after Facebook security breach](https://d23vnjd1yg7tth.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/50-Million-accounts-exposed-after-Facebook-security-breach-.jpg)
50 Million accounts exposed after Facebook security breach. Facebook has revealed that almost 50 million of its users accounts were left exposed due to a security flaw. Facebook has more than two billion active monthly users, making security a high priority concern. The security breach has caused Facebook’s shares to drop by 3% on Friday, 28 September.
The breach was discovered this week, and is the latest controversy surrounding Facebook after British company Cambridge Analytica gained access to information of 87 million users, and the controversy surrounding disinformation in elections. However, this breach has been the largest in the company’s 14-year history.
Facebook has said the attackers exploited two bugs in the site’s “View as” feature. The feature, which was designed to give users a clearer view of their presence and more control over their privacy, allows users to check what information other people can see about them. The flaw allowed users to gain “access tokens” which allow access to accounts, through Facebook’s video-uploading program for birthday celebrations. Although it’s not yet known when the attack happened, it seems to occurred after the video-uploading program was introduced. Attacked attempted to harvest user’s personal identifiable information (PII). After the attack was discovered, Facebook forced 90 million users to log out. Facebook has not announced where in the world the 50 million users are.
There have been some major changes in Facebook’s security teams after its Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos left in August this year for a teaching position at Stanford University. Facebook decided to split the team members so that security employees work within different teams across the company, in order to make security an innate part of Facebook.
Facebook’s data breach was a trending topic on Friday with users posting the breaking story as news outlets released it. User’s found that some of their posts were removed because Facebook’s algorithm saw them as suspicious activity or spam.
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BREAKING NEWS
US Online Retail Company suffered a data breach affecting 6.5 million customers
![](https://d23vnjd1yg7tth.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PhotoGrid_1537924540709-1.jpg)
US Online Retail Company suffered a data breach affecting 6.5 million customers. SHEIN debuted in 2008, and steadily grew to become one of the most acclaimed online women’s fashion stores. Their aim is to provide cutting edge fashion with an affordable price tag. The website primarily caters to women age 16-35, and is US based but ships to over 80 countries.
They recently discovered that their servers had been compromised by hackers in an attack that spanned from June 2018 until 22 August 2018 when the threat was recognised. Once SHEIN were away of the threat, they acted immediately, scanning the servers for weaknesses that were exploited and removed all possible back door entry points to the servers.
SHEIN have been selective with what information they have shared with the public; however we do know that email addresses and encrypted password information was obtained from the attack. We recommend that if you have an account with SHEIN, that you change your password as soon as possible, it is also good practise to use different passwords as often as you can, and make them complex, a password manager can help you keep track of your passwords.
The only promising news about this incident is that SHEIN don’t believe any payment card details were obtained by the hackers. However, SHEIN have enlisted an international forensic cyber security team to conduct a thorough investigation into the breach, and as a result will update users on their data if new information comes to light over the coming months.
If you do believe your payment card information has been compromised, the best thing to do is to contact your bank immediately, they will be able to issue a new card and enact any necessary security measures.
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