Shocking news reports that several investors' trading accounts have been hacked and used for unauthorized share purchases on Bursa Malaysia.
According to The Edge news, Bursa confirmed that the Securities Commission Malaysia was reported by several brokers regarding the detection of unauthorized access and trading activities in certain trading accounts.
Their statement said that the extent of the attack is being ascertained, the capital market regulator and brokers are currently working together to address the issue.
According to sources in the stockbroking industry, the hacks mostly originated from overseas as indicated by the associated internet protocol (IP) addresses.
The affected accounts were reportedly accounts without pre-authorized internet trading access, meaning that transactions for such accounts usually require execution through their respective brokerage firms.
The scale of the hack extends to accounts that rely on brokerage firm systems rather than through individual investors' personal logins.
Interestingly, a similar but smaller-scale incident occurred about six weeks earlier, leading the source to speculate that the hackers may have been conducting a test run before launching this massive attack.
The warrants trading volume on the day reached 41.17 million units, with 33.15 million units trading at a high of 60 sen.
This suggests that an estimated profit of around RM10 million was made at that price level.
Some market observers speculated that the hacking operation may have involved pre-arrangements with cybercriminals to share profits.
A similar issue was also detected in Japan, where online brokerage accounts were hacked and used to manipulate sen stocks globally.
The hijacked accounts were used to buy shares at prices that had been improperly inflated, allowing parties who had opened positions earlier to sell at the manipulated high prices.
