Hundreds of Msians’ data leaked in massive SOCSO hack

Disclaimer: This is an ongoing case, and we’ll be updating this as we receive new information

Amanz.my, a local IT news site, reported today of a massive Social Security Organization (SOCSO) data breach that happened earlier this month. On 5th December 2023, a group that calls themselves Rupert_Group claimed that they were the ones behind the cyber-attack:

In a post on Breachforums.is, Rupert_Group blamed SOCSO for their lax security, and stated that they’ve obtained the personal data of dozens, if not hundreds, of Malaysians.

The hackers also ‘thanked’ Khairul Nizyam bin Mustaffa, SOCSO’s Head of ICT Infrastructure & Security, and disparaged Trend Micro, an IT security company, for their ‘security protection’.

After releasing a portion of the data in their first post, Rupert_Group released a second portion one day later, saying that they’re ‘reputable hackers’ and they ‘just need some funds to support their passion’.

The data appears to contain sensitive details like MyKad numbers, email addresses, home addresses, recent bank transactions and even retired military status.

The hackers even managed to infiltrate SOCSO’s meeting about the attack

Two days after Rupert_Group’s initial forum post, they uploaded two videos to YouTube of SOCSO’s crisis management meeting about the attack. The meeting involved two of the agency’s department heads, Azirruan bin Arifin (Head of Internal Audit), Rahmat bin Ismail, (Head of Synergy Division), and some other SOCSO employees. Unbeknownst to them at the time, Rupert_Group had infiltrated the video call, and recorded the discussion.

The videos revealed that SOCSO was made aware of the attack on 2nd December and detailed what the agency has done to fix the system after the breach. As of now, The Star reported that SOCSO will release a full statement about this incident soon.