Protecting Agencies From Cyber
6 August 2010 (New Straits Times) 

SERI KEMBANGAN: The government has decided that the country's critical agencies are to be certified with the ISO's Information Security Management System by 2013.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said this would ensure that these agencies were protected from cyber attacks.

The Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) under these agencies are health, water, banking and finance, information and communications, energy, transport, defence and security, government, agriculture and emergency services.

Nazri said the economy's reliance on information and communications technology (ICT) and communications networks made it necessary to ensure that the CNII was secure and protected from threats.

He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the third annual Cyber Security Exercise here yesterday.

The exercise was a collaboration between the National Security Council (NSC) and CyberSecurity Malaysia, an agency under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, to assess the cyber security emergency readiness of the CNII to cope with cyber attacks.

Thirty-four organisations took part in the exercise as compared with 28 last year.

Nazri said the increasing use of cyber space to conduct business had allowed a "dynamic and globally connected" economy to be formed.

"Our dependance on ICT infrastructure makes it more vulnerable and, therefore, it needs careful protection and attention.

"The risks that we face from the cyber world are real and cannot be taken lightly. So, we have to take the necessary precautions to thwart these attacks."

Nazri said to ensure the country was ready to face cyber attacks that could cause national crises, the NSC had come up with a National Cyber Crisis Management Plan.