KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — The Communications and Digital Ministry has found that most of the personal data being traded on the dark web is fake, according to its deputy minister Teo Nie Ching.
She said her ministry has found most of the personal information up for auction on the dark web was used in ransomware to extort money from companies keen to regain their data, Mingguan Malaysia, the Sunday edition of Utusan Malaysia, reported today.
“We don’t know the accuracy of this data.
“It can be false, like in a recent case in five universities. The data published on the dark web was fake data created by students to test the effectiveness of certain programmes,” she was quoted as saying.
Last Thursday, Utusan Malaysia reported that the personal information of Malaysians taken from various government and private organisations were being sold on the dark side of the internet for between RM4,400 and RM45,000.
The auctioned data reportedly contained complete personal information on individuals, such as their names, identity card numbers, addresses, dates of birth, gender, race, religion, telephone numbers and even photos.
Teo told Mingguan Malaysia that her ministry is working to amend certain provisions in the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 to address loopholes in the law and the rapid technological advancements and global privacy law enhancements.
