Cyber security level in Malaysia better than those in developed countries
14 April 2009 (New Sabah Times)

KOTA KINABALU: The cyber security level in Malaysia is way above the average, and in many cases even better than those in developed countries, according to the country's leading cyber specialist, CyberSecurity Malaysia.

Its CEO Lt. Col. (retired) Husin Haji Jazri said the response mechanisms to cyber threat and misconduct that has been set in place by the Malaysian authorities is highly commendable.

"In terms of creating a safe cyber environment and responding to threat or complain pertaining to cyber crime, Malaysia fares way above the average.

"We always have cyber specialist centres that are available at all time where users can relate their complaints or report cyber crime. The responsiveness level that has been created in Malaysia is highly commendable," he said during the CyberSecurity Malaysia's media briefing here yesterday.

Husin said management of cyber risk has became more complicated as hackers are now using more sophisticated techniques and able to attack not only an organization but a chain of critical organizations to deliver harmful impact to a particular country.

The trend in cyber crimes, he said, has also changed with financially powerful groups deploying technical cyber attack to bring down their enemies or competitors.

"Before this, the motive (among hackers) was more towards showing off their hacking abilities which was why we have seen many hackers claiming responsibilities to major cyber crimes in the past.

"But now, the motive is monetary. Well planned and sophisticated techniques are being used to harm not only companies but also to attack the whole country. This is the new trend. People are willing to pay for cyber attack to be deployed for them," he said.

Husin explained cyber criminals today operates by controlling as many computers as possible on the internet and uses the entire computing resources under their control to attack specific target, such as banks. Apart from technical attack, he said content-related threat or propagation of unethical or harmful contents is another main concern in the cyber world, including in Malaysia.

Transmission of pornographic contents through the Internet, for example, is still an issue in Malaysia, said Husin. "Apart from that, character assassination through dissemination of negative personal information has been seen from time to time," he said.

Realizing the importance of IT development as a critical element in Malaysia's effort to become a developed country, he said the Government through Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has created CyberSecurity Malaysia, which together with many other cyber specialist organizations became the vanguard of the cyber security in the country.

These organizations, armed with their sophisticated equipments and highly trained specialists and experts, compliment the role of the law enforcement agencies in ensuring well guarded and safer cyber environment, said Husin.

The CyberSecurity Malaysia, he said, work closely with the police, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the Securities Commission, and other related agencies.