KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 22): Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd has suffered a data breach, exposing customers’ MyKad data.
In a statement on their official website, the group said it had recently discovered the unauthorised access to subscribers' MyKad data such as their names, identity card numbers, date of birth, gender, race and address.
“Less than 0.2% of our customers are affected in this incident and we are in the process of informing them. Please be assured that no financial data of our customers had been disclosed. We addressed this incident immediately and stopped the unauthorised access,” the media group said.
It added that it has informed the police, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Department of Personal Data Protection — and is working with the authorities to address the breach.
It noted that it is not able to comment on the data breach in order to facilitate ongoing police investigations while reiterating that it takes the protection of its subscriber’s personal information seriously and has taken steps to further strengthen its data security.
“Astro regrets any concern or inconvenience this may have caused. We will continue to be vigilant in protecting our customers’ data,” the group said.
This marks the second time a data breach involving Astro subscribers' data has occurred in the past 14 months.
On June 6, 2018 online publication Lowyat.net had reported of a similar breach occurring for up to 60,000 Astro IPTV customers — with the data fetching RM4,500 for 10,000 records.