The data leak involving personal data of over 46.2 million mobile phone subscribers in the country is believed to have occurred during the data transfer process at a telecommunications company.

Inspector-general of police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said it was possible that some of the company's employees were trying to take advantage of the situation during the data transfer process.

"I'm not sure what their purpose was to take the data, but we have found some new leads (in this case) including identifying the suspects involved.

"We have some idea of how the data transaction could have been released to non-related parties, however, the internal security controls have been taken by the responsible parties," he told a press conference after closing a police assembly at Maktab PDRM in Cheras.

Mohamad Fuzi said the Bukit Aman commercial crime investigation department was currently investigating the case with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

He said the data transfer involved service providers of telecommunications companies, and the police were working with them to identify the cause of the leak.

On Nov 1, MCMC had identified the possible source of personal data leak involving records of over 46.2 million mobile phone subscribers in the country.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said an investigation was being carried out by the MCMC in collaboration with the police to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

- Bernama