Information on 46.2 million cellphone accounts was slurped from Malaysians telecoms providers. To put that in context, the population of Malaysia is 31.2 million; obviously, some people have more than one number.The stolen telco records include people’s mobile phone numbers, SIM card details, device serial numbers, and home addresses, all of which are useful to identity thieves and scammers. Some 80,000 medical records were also accessed during the hacking spree, and government websites as well as Jobstreet.com were attacked and infiltrated, too, we’re told.
[…]
Malaysian officials confirmed this week that nearly 50 million mobile phone account records were accessed by hackers unknown. The authorities also warned that people’s private data was stolen from the Malaysian Medical Council, the Malaysian Medical Association, the Academy of Medicine, the Malaysian Housing Loan Applications body, the Malaysian Dental Association, and the National Specialist Register of Malaysia.

It’s believed the systems were actually hacked as far back as 2014, The Star reported.

Source: Virtually everyone in Malaysia pwned in telco, govt data hack spree • The Register

Computer, smartphone and network hacking by UK intelligence agency GCHQ is legal, a security tribunal has said.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled on Friday that computer network exploitation (CNE) – which can include remotely activating microphones and cameras on electronic devices such as iPhones without the owner’s knowledge – is legal.

The case, which was heard in 2015, was the first time that GCHQ admitted to carrying out hacking in the UK and overseas. Previously, their policy had been to “neither confirm nor deny”.
[…]
During proceedings, GCHQ admitted that it carries out CNE outside the UK, and that in 2013 about a fifth of its intelligence reports contained information derived from hacking.

Source: GCHQ hacking phones and computers is legal, says top UK court

So is there any kind of warrant procedure at all before they start hacking private individual or business computers?