KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 ― Barisan Nasional (BN) top leaders are the latest victims of a cyberattack after receiving repeated anonymous phone calls suspected to be from bots earlier this morning.
Sabah BN leader and incumbent Kota Belud MP Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan took to Twitter to report the incident.
“BN leaders’ handphones have been under technical attack since morning. Calls from overseas keep coming in every few seconds! To prevent us from communicating with our machinery. This is dirty trick!” he wrote.
He included a video of the multiple unknown phone numbers on his phone screen.
Umno leader Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said also tweeted being spammed with “weird calls from overseas, especially from the US”.
“Understand many have been getting such spam calls since this morning,” she said on her Twitter account.
Even caretaker communication and multimedia minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak was not spared from attacks.
“I too have been getting spammed non-stop since this morning. Most strange,” he tweeted and attached screenshots of the unknown numbers on his phone.
Opposition leaders from Pakatan Harapan and social activist groups such as Suaram and Bersih 2.0 had earlier reported receiving similar anonymous calls since morning.
Yesterday, the National Cyber Security Agency issued an advisory to all Malaysian organisations to tighten their digital security as they predicted a new wave of attacks.
It warned that the attacks could take the form of Distributed Denial of Service, web defacement, malware infection or even intrusion attempts.
But the spam calls were not restricted to politicians or activists. Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa said he had been spammed over 400 times since morning.
“I myself got 488 spam calls since 7am. This is ‘cyberattack’ by irresponsible parties to disrupt #PRU14,” he posted on Twitter.
BN leaders’ handphones have been under technical attack since morning. Calls from overseas keep coming in every few seconds! To prevent us from communicating with our machinery. This is dirty trick! pic.twitter.com/SU871PmF5G
— Abdul Rahman Dahlan (@mpkotabelud) May 9, 2018
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission issued a statement saying it has received “numerous complaints today of phones ringing and then the call drops”.
“Initial investigation points to a technical cause of BOTS attack which is initiated anonymously from various sources with differing targets irrespective of the political parties.
“We seek that everyone stop this act immediately and refrain from further use of such technical attacks as it could jeopardise the telecommunication network causing inconvenience to the public and a security risk,” it said.
It advised those receiving these anonymous calls not to answer them.
“MCMC and the service providers are continuing to investigate and in the event that the initiator/s is identified MCMC will take stern action as provided by the law,” it added.
