KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — Bank Negara Malaysia on Friday suspended its Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) for all credit reporting agencies.

The suspension was revealed in an announcement to Bursa Malaysia by CTOS Digital Bhd (CTOS) yesterday evening. The firm said the suspension was to avert "potential cyber threats” and "data leak”.

"Upholding customer data security has always been our utmost priority, and we are committed to fulfil the conditions in order for the suspension to be uplifted,” the company said in the statement.

"We are working expeditiously to resume these services as quickly as possible. The rest of our portfolio of services remain available to our customers.” 

Bank Negara has not issued a statement on the CCRIS suspension to date.

Several government agencies and ministries are facing mounting public scrutiny over concerns around advertisements by entities that claim they sell government-held databases with personal identification information (PII).

Many of the advertisements have appeared on a website like raidforums.com.