Police granted 60-day remand order for Malaysian duo allegedly involved in global hacking operation
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 — The Magistrate’s Court has granted the police a 60-day remand order for two Malaysians, allegedly involved in a global hacking operation.
Earlier, The Star reported Perak-based SEA Gamer Mall as confirming that the gaming store is currently going through the indictment papers issued by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which has charged two of its senior executives for their alleged role in a global hacking operation, which is said to have taken place for at least six years.
The two have been identified as Wong Ong Hua and Ling Yang Ching, according to the report.
The DoJ charged Wong, 46, and Ling, 32, with 23 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, money laundering, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and falsely registering domain names.
“The remand application was allowed by the Magistrate’s Court for 60 days, under Section 16(1) of the Extradition Act 1992, as well as Article 11(4) of the Extradition Treaty between the Malaysian and US governments.
“Both suspects are under remand in Sungai Buloh Prison, Selangor,” Bukit Aman’s Criminal Investigations Department director Datuk Huzir Mohamed said in a statement today.
He said that the US had sent an extradition request on September 3 for the two suspects, which was agreed by the attorney general.
“On September 11, 2020, the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate’s Court issued a provisional warrant of arrest for the two suspects,” he added.
Huzir said that the police had launched their operation on September 14 to detain the duo, which involved officers from several departments.
According to Sea Gamer Mall’s website, Wong is its founder and chief executive officer based in Sitiawan, Perak, while Ling is listed as a partner and chief product officer.
US Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen in a statement earlier announced charges against five Chinese nationals and two Malaysians who are alleged to have run global hacking operations to steal identities and video game technology, plant ransomware, and spy on Hong Kong activists.
He said the Chinese defendants targeted well over 100 victims worldwide in a variety of industries and sectors.
He added that the hackers used a sophisticated technique referred to as a “supply chain attack”, in which the Chinese hackers compromised software providers around the world, and modified the providers’ code to install backdoors that enabled further hacks against the software providers’ customers.
The DoJ said Wong and Ling operated through SEA Gamer Mall.
SEA Gamer Mall was established in 2007 with offices in China, Thailand and Indonesia.
On its website, the company claimed that it has 1.9 million registered users.
Wong had previously said that most of the website’s sales came from prepaid top-up cards and online game virtual items.
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