Verity journal

It was recently reported by the Malay Mail that Putrajaya’s exam portal was forced to shut down after a data breach was found. It is possible that the breach has leaked the MyKad numbers of millions of users as it is used by students and parents to access their examination results on the portal.

This is not the first time we’ve seen a data breach in Malaysia. Last October, Malaysia saw some 46.2 million mobile number subscribers in Malaysia at stake in what was reported to be one of the largest data breaches ever seen locally.

Here are 5 reasons why you should be concerned:

1. Personal safety: As your IC typically stores information like your home address, the wrong people could pose a physical threat to your personal safety.
2. Doing the time even though you didn’t do the crime: Equipped with your stolen identity, a criminal could be committing crimes with your name but without having to carry the blame.
3. Having loans and being registered to businesses you didn’t know about: As long as the information provided is accurate, businesses or credit cards can be registered under your name without you knowing it.
4. Jeopardising future opportunities: You might be raising eyebrows during job interviews and a pre-hire background screen if you have a criminal or financial record you didn’t know about, because someone else has been galavanting with your name.
5. Spam, spam everywhere: These sorts of data breach also allows scammers to target you with scams, spam, malware or phishing attempts.

Don’t know if you are one of the affected? Why wait for something bad to happen before you find out? Perform a self-check with Verity Intelligence and regularly monitor your own financial and credit activities! As they say, prevention is better than cure. A self-check can help raise red-flags more effectively as you can enlist the help of professionals and minimise your risks.

For more news on the industry and information on how performing background screening on yourself can be helpful in the long run, stay tuned to www.verityintel.com.