Malaysian PM’s Telegram, Signal accounts hacked as officials deny data security crisis

PM Ismail Sabri’s accounts were breached by ‘irresponsible parties’, his office says, as a report shows most Malaysians are likely to have faced a data breach at least once

The hacking is among a series of major security lapses of late, and comes as authorities face accusations of running ‘troll farms’ and ‘fake accounts’

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Malaysian PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob has told people not to be ‘influenced by what we receive’. Photo: Bernama/dpa

Published: 8:00pm, 9 Aug 2022

The private messaging accounts of Malaysia’s prime minister and a cabinet minister have reportedly been hacked, the latest in a series of major data breaches over the past few months, although the government maintains it has no reason to believe the country is facing a data security crisis.

In a statement on Monday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaacob’s office confirmed that his personal Telegram and Signal accounts had been hacked and abused by “irresponsible parties” to scam people. It advised anyone receiving messages from the compromised accounts to ignore them.

The next day, the premier confirmed the incident in parliament and advised the public to be wary of being duped by hackers. “To users, like myself and others, do not be influenced by what we receive,” Ismail Sabri told reporters at the Senate lobby.

Malaysia Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah. Photo: AP

Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah also urged the public to ignore messages purportedly being sent by him over Telegram, and to report those texts to the authorities.

“My Telegram account was hacked by an irresponsible party who misused my name and picture through the application,” Saifuddin said in a post on Twitter.

Neither the prime minister nor the foreign minister elaborated on the nature of the hacks.

Conversations on the Telegram app are not end-to-end encrypted by default, unlike Signal, which is among the most secure messaging platforms that is publicly available.