Telcos: We don't store SMS content

Mobile service providers do not store the content of text-messages, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the death of Teoh Beng Hock was told today.

This has hampered the RCI's chances of retrieving communication between the anti-graft agency’s officers.

Three of the established telecommunication companies - Celcom, Maxis and Digi - were subpoenaed to appear before the panel to explain why it could not be done.

The first to take the stand was Mohd Norizal Hasim, one of Celcom’s senior managers.

According to RCI chairperson James Foong, the commission’s private investigator Michael Leslie Squires was not able to retrieve the content of short message service (SMS) messages of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) enforcement officers.

Last month, the RCI had ordered Squires to sequester laptops and mobile phones of Selangor MACC enforcercement personnel who were involved in a probe into alleged irregularities in the disbursement of state funds in July 2009.

“The inquiry's investigator went to Celcom’s service centre but could not retrieve the content of SMSes as he was told no records were kept,” said Foong.

Norizal, to the disappointment of the panel, confirmed that SMS data of Celcom’s customers is stored in the server for 30 days but does not include SMS content.

“We store the date, time and mobile number of the sender and recipient,” he explained.

However, Norizal, who has been working for Celcom for 13 years, added that SMS data can be stored on the cellular phone and in the subscriber identification module card.

“Celcom doesn’t store content of messages... after each transaction has been sent to the prepaid or postpaid billing division, records are purged,” he said.

Back-up copy kept for a year

A back-up copy of the details of senders and recipients are, however, kept for a year, said Norizal.

Commissioner Abdul Kadir Sulaiman then asked, “For national security reasons... don’t you think this is required of service providers (to store content)?”

“We need to know the contents of subversive messages for national security reasons,” he added.

However, Norizal repeated that only details, not the content, are stored in the system implemented in 2004.

Thus far the inquiry has been able to derive relevant information and to retrace the activities of graft-busters on July 15 and 16, 2009, based on the laptops and central processing units confiscated.

Among the discoveries made was that several officers had been watching pornography on duty.

Teoh, the political secretary of Seri Kembangan assemblyperson Ean Yong Hian Wah, had been called in as a witness on July 15, 2009 and questioned overnight at the Selangor MACC's office in Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam.

He was found dead on the fifth floor corridor of the building the next day.

The RCI was formed after an inquest into Teoh’s death delivered an open verdict, ruling out both homicide and suicide as the cause of death.

The RCI is focusing on two terms of reference: the cause of Teoh’s death and whether or not the MACC had followed proper procedures when questioning Teoh.