# MA-998.122023: MyCERT Alert - Cyber Security Best Practices Against Data Breach Incidents

**Date:** 09 Dec 2023  
**Source:** https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-998.122023  
**Advisory ID:** MA-998.122023

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**1.0 Introduction**
The Cyber999 Incident Response Centre has observed an increasing number of incidents 
The PII mainly consists of full names, permanent addresses, identification numbers, household income, email addresses, or phone numbers, as well as intellectual property. This information could potentially be misused by Threat Actors, and individuals who own the PII could be targeted for scams and other threats.
In addition to the PII, we have also received incidents of data breaches belonging to organisations which are sold on the dark web. This data usually consists of confidential and sensitive data belonging to the organisations.
Figure 1: The statistic of data breaches in Malaysia as of Nov 2023
Hence, we would like to advise individuals and organisations to be more vigilant of potential data breach incidents.  System Administrators must strictly adhere to the latest security updates and patches and follow the best practice security policies to determine which updates should be applied.
**2.0 Impact**
The impact of a data breach depends on the nature and extent of the breach and the type of information that has been compromised. Some breaches may involve only one or two people while others may affect hundreds or thousands. Larger breaches expose a wider group of people and could require considerable notification and remediation activities.
Serious impacts of a data breach could include:
- Risk to individuals’ safety.
- Increase fraudulent activities such as scams and impersonation.
- Financial loss to an individual or organization.
- Damage to personal reputation and brand names.
- Loss of public trust in an Agency or the services it provides.
- Commercial risk through disclosure of commercially sensitive information to third parties.
- Threat to an agency’s systems, impacting the capacity to provide services.
- Impact on Government reputation, finances, interests, or operation.
- Loss of data integrity.
**3.0 Emerging Techniques, Tactics and Procedures (TTPs)**
The following are some emerging Techniques, Tactics and Procedures (TTPs) that are actively exploited by Threat Actors in 2023, potentially leading to data breaches:
- Advanced Malware: More sophisticated attacks like fileless malware that evade traditional detection methods.
- Supply Chain Exploits: Targeting weaknesses in third-party vendors to breach larger organizations.
- Zero-Day Vulnerabilities: Exploiting unknown weaknesses in software or hardware.
- Ransomware Services: Renting ransomware tools to conduct attacks, and sharing profits with providers.
- Cloud Security Risks: Exploiting misconfigured or vulnerable cloud services.
- Credential Attacks: Using stolen login credentials from data breaches.
- Web Application Exploits: Injecting malicious code into websites or apps for unauthorized access.
**4.0 Recommendations**
Protection of sensitive data is required not only for legal or ethical reasons but for issues 
MyCERT has published advisories 
- [MA-746.092019: MyCERT Advisory - Security Best Practices on Data Breach Incident](https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/details?menu=431fab9c-d24c-4a27-ba93-e92edafdefa5&id=89250373-af1e-4145-85de-c7b2020a09fc)
- [MA-821.102021: MyCERT Advisory - Best Practices When Personal Information is Breached](https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-821.102021)
- [MA-893.112022: MyCERT Alert - Security Best Practices and Guidelines](https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-893.112022)
The above advisories contain prevention against data breach incidents and suggested responses to data breach incidents if they occur. Please follow the best practices and guidelines accordingly to prevent any unwanted incidents from occurring.
For further enquiries on this advisory or to report a data breach incident, please contact us through the following channels:
E-mail: cyber999[at]cybersecurity.my 
Phone: 1-300-88-2999 (monitored during business hours)  
Mobile: +60 19 2665850 (24x7 call incident reporting) 
Business Hours: Mon - Fri 09:00 -18:00 MYT 
Web: <https://www.mycert.org.my> 
Twitter: <https://twitter.com/mycert> 
Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/mycert.org.my>
**5.0    References**
- <https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-893.112022>
- <https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-821.102021>
- <https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-746.092019>