KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — The Ministry of Education today confirmed it had suspended its School Examination Analysis System (SAPS) to investigate “security concerns” over a possible data breach.
In a statement, Education Minister Maszlee Malik said the ministry is currently reviewing the claims that had been highlighted to the them regarding the system.
This comes after Malay Mail reported on the security breach, which may have exposed the personal data of more than 10 million Malaysians.
“The Ministry of Education’s SAPS system has been suspended due to security concerns over an alleged attack on the system,” said Maszlee.
“On behalf of the ministry, I apologise for any alarm caused, but I am personally looking into the issue and have taken immediate action.
“We are currently analysing the claims, which were sent to our ministry on Saturday. As a precautionary measure, I have instructed the ministry to temporarily shut down the system.”
The portal launched in 2011 allows parents and students to check their examination results by entering their identification card numbers.
According to a source that revealed the breach to the media, he claimed the system had undergone an interface and code upgrade that had caused its weaknesses.
In light of this, Maszlee added that the ministry was also conducting an in-depth security analysis to identify weaknesses in the system.
“In the long term, we will update our project management and risk management process for all of our projects to prevent issues like this from reccurring,” said Maszlee.
