INCIDENTS of data breaches continue to make news in Malaysia. Aside from the numerous locally reported cases, at an international level, this year alone, Malaysia was first alluded to in the Netflix documentary The Great Hack as one of the countries allegedly having engaged the services of the infamous Cambridge Analytica, and more recently cited in a report by Comparitech as ranking 15th out of 20 non-EU countries in terms of privacy protection. Malaysia’s international reputation in this field is fast diminishing.

Malaysia was one of the first countries in the region to enact unique legislation dealing with personal data protection in 2010. However, since coming into force in 2013, little has been heard about its impact. And the last three years have seen some of the biggest data breaches involving personal data in the country, many of which are still unresolved.