FOLLOWING warnings that Malaysia may be one of the countries to be hit by cyber-attacks following the war in Ukraine, a cyber security company urged relevant parties to develop enough capability to protect the nation’s sovereignty and independence in security operation.
“This must include critical areas such as our financial, telecommunication, Government and healthcare sectors.
“When attacked, all the critical sectors must have the capability to defend itself against malicious cyberattacks.
“A major cyberattack could cause chaos and significant disruptions to the country, not to mention financial and reputational losses,” Tecforte Sdn Bhd director Aziz Hussein told FocusM.
Yesterday, former foreign affairs minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman urged the Government to stand firm against the regular encroachments into the country’s territorial waters or Malaysia could find itself in the same situation as Ukraine one day.
“Malaysia should stand firm on our sentiment on this issue and take action to stop the aggression because, with the geopolitical issues surrounding our Malaysian waters with trespass after trespass by a big super nation to the east, we could very well be in the same shoes as Ukraine,” Malaysiakini reported him as saying.
He also warned against the “widespread cyber warfare and misinformation tactics deployed by Russia.”
“I am calling all parties involved in the telecommunications and digital systems in Malaysia to enhance our infrastructure security in facing any possible cyber-attacks or misinformation campaigns.
“As Malaysia prepares for the 5G network technology while making sure every Malaysian has equitable access to it, we must also consider its security aspects,” Anifah added.
Sectoral approach
Touching on the matter, Aziz said while no country could stop cyberattacks in toto, Government agencies and enterprises must beef up their cyber security level.
He added that businesses and Governments should employ a modern approach to deal with cyber-attacks, by using “sectoral approach”.
“Both the Government and private enterprises have their own sectors and sub-sectors. For example, the Finance Ministry is a sector on its own, while the ministry itself is sub-sector of the Government.
“So, we need sectors to come together as collective to mitigate cyber security attacks,” Aziz mentioned.
Citing an example, if the banks get together in the “sectoral approach’, he said it could mitigate effects of cyber-attacks faster compared to if they work on it individually.
“For example, if Bank A gets attacked, under the ‘sectoral approach’, Bank B will get to know about it and take precautions.
“At the same time, if Bank A manages to use an effective system to mitigate the attack, under the ‘sectoral approach’, Bank B will be able to apply the same measure to protect itself instead of coming up with their own solutions.
“This is where knowledge sharing comes in too,” Aziz remarked. – March 1, 2022.
