KUALA LUMPUR: Cybersecurity threats cannot be taken lightly as they can result in huge losses to their victims, said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
In most cases, the objective of criminals was to use the compromised accounts to impersonate the actual owner for various deceptive purposes, including to conduct financial fraud, it said.
"The perpetrator will take advantage by using the ID to con anyone linked to these individuals and in this case, the country's leaders," the MCMC told Bernama recently.
Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob became a victim recently when his personal Telegram account was hacked by irresponsible parties. He subsequently lodged police reports.
MCMC said the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) is a specific agency tasked with supervising all aspects of the country's cybersecurity and would take necessary action to ensure that the country's cybersecurity is at its level best.
"All messaging apps and social media developed by platform providers come with security features that users can use to protect themselves.
"These include activating the two-factor authentication, or 2FA, for each account," the MCMC said, adding that users must keep their OTPs private and not hand them over to avoid the risk of having their accounts taken over by irresponsible parties.
The MCMC also advised users to always be vigilant and not to share their personal details with anyone.
"Besides activating the 2FA, users can also use complex and hard-to-guess passwords, and never click any suspicious URLs or links, including from those claiming to be representatives of any messaging platform or social media provider.
"You might be directed to a website that is similar to the platform and asked to provide your user name and password that you have or are using," MCMC said.
Criminal analyst Kamal Affandi Hashim said what happened to Ismail Sabri's Telegram account could happen to anyone.
He said there were two factors that enabled the hack, firstly the device used was exposed to malware and the application platform was easily manipulated by irresponsible parties.
"We know in general that this platform is easily manipulated. We can finally take over someone else's account and this often happens and is reported widely," Kamal Affandi told Bernama.
He said it would be hasty to draw conclusions that the national cybersecurity system was unsafe because the prime minister's private social media account could be hacked.
"Some say that if the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister (Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah) can be targeted, that means Malaysia was not equipped to take on such cyber attacks.
"CyberSecurity Malaysia and MCMC have proven their ability in carrying out their duties in such issues," he added.
– BERNAMA