The country needs to be prepared and required a lot of help, both internationally and domestically in minimizing the risks of cyber attacks against the country in both the public and private sectors alike.
As you are well aware, Malaysia started its journey towards a digital economy in 1996 with the launch of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) - a mega project which is the first of its kind in this region.
Fast forward to Feb 2021, the then Prime Minister launched MyDIGITAL and the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint.
The explanation by the Prime Minister then was that the MyDigital initiative serves as a digital transformation direction plan that aims to improve digital literacy, creates high-income employment opportunities, makes banking and finance business easier and more organised, provides virtual educational access to children in the country and brings medical facilities to remote towns.
It sets out a combination of initiatives and targets across three phases of implementation until 2030:
1. Phase 1 starts from 2021 to 2022, and will strengthen the foundation of digital adoption.
2. Phase 2, which covers 2023 to 2025, will drive inclusive digital transformation.
3. Phase 3, covering 2026 to 2030, will make Malaysia a digital content and cyber security lead in the regional market.
Set out in the MyDigital initiatives are that by 2025, the digital economy is expected to contribute 22.6% to the country's GDP.
At the same time, the plan also aims to open 500,000 job opportunities in the digital economy.
The government will also encourage 875,000 micro, small and medium enterprises to accept the use of e-commerce and catalyse 5,000 start-up companies or start-ups in the next five years and a starting point to attract new investments in the digital sector of RM70bn from within and outside the country.
By 2030, the government is targeting the level of productivity of the economic sector to increase by 30%, compared to today.
For the public sector, all agencies will provide cashless transaction facilities as the main choice by 2022. (HR.net)
Sadly, true and typical to our style of governance, a lot of these initiatives, some of which are benchmarked to the best, either faltered or failed in its implementation or never gets to see daylight after launching.
In a study commissioned and released by UK-based Reboot Digital PR Services on the safety of digital nomads, Malaysia ranked slightly more secure than Cyprus and Indonesia in third position, with 1,557 compromised computers and 900 malware-hosting sites, which aid its overall cyber danger score of 79.9 out of 100.
Within the Asia region, Malaysia has been ranked among the top 10 Asian countries that are the least secure to work remotely. (The Edge Markets)
Separately, according to Kaspersky, cybersecurity continues to be the top concern for the country. Cybercriminals continuously preyed on victims and the country's top leaders are not spared either from such criminal acts by hackers.
As individuals and businesses began to share more private information through computers and mobile phones, rather than on paper, the rakyat deserves for their information be treated with the highest levels of security.
This is all the more relevant as cybercrime has traditionally increased in times of flux, such as the pandemic in the last 2 years and an economic downturn projected to affect the country next year.
With the constant shift in technology, cyber incidents and crimes rise tends to rise too.
According to KKMM, in 2020, Malaysia recorded 6,512 cybersecurity incidents.
In the period between January and May, the number of incidents recorded stood at 4,615, representing an almost one-fold increase in threats and incidents comparatively.
Cyber crimes have also shown an upward trend. According to police statistics, the number of cyber crimes reported in 2019 were 11,875 cases, with RM498 million in terms of losses. Last year, the number of cases increased to 14,229, with total losses of RM413 million. In the first quarter of this year, the number of cases reported was 4,327 and the losses involved were RM77 million.
SMEs, which contribute a large percentage to our overall gross domestic product (GDP), 38.9% in 2019, bear the brunt of most of these attacks in the country. (KKMM)
To put it in numbers:
- 84% of SME in Malaysia have been compromised by cyber threat incidents
- 76% SME have suffered more than one attack.
The country set up NACSA to oversee cybersecurity while having Cybersecurity Malaysia, an agency set up and tasked to monitor cybersecurity risks against the country.
During Pakatan’s brief period in power in 2018, the then government set up an E Sovereign Committee that was chaired by Dr Wan Azizah who then tasked NACSA to introduce a national awareness plan on the management of cybersecurity and cybercrime in Jan 2020. (Daily Express)
According to Dr Wan Azizah, NACSA was also tasked to develop a National Cybersecurity Strategy and undertaking initiatives in developing the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) Cyber Security Work Plan which is a joint plan for cybersecurity among ARF member countries. (Daily Express)
The National Cybersecurity Strategy 2020 -2024 was eventually launched in Oct 2020 with an allocation of RM1.8 billion to step up national cyber security preparedness.
The then Prime Minister in launching the strategy that encompasses 12 strategies, 35 actions plans and 113 programmes as the thrust of the cyber security mechanism to face any forms of cyber attacks said the Communications and Multimedia Ministry (KKMM) and the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) would be tasked with formulating, implementing, monitoring and coordinating the medium term action plan.
Moving forward again, in the third week of May 2022, the public’s attention was once again roused over an alleged data leak involving the personal information of 22.5 million Malaysians of the age between 18 and 82 years. It was reported that such personal information was allegedly leaked from the database of the National Registration Department (“NRD”). (Conventus Law)
The above was the 2nd time a breach happened.
In 2021, an alleged breach at the NRD has been reported when the same thing happened involving the sale of personal details of 4 million Malaysians, stolen from NRD and the Inland Revenue Board.
It is a whole new different ballgame when it comes to data leaks from official databases, such as government institutions or commercial entities such as credit agencies.
In 2017, the entire country was affected by a massive data breach where details of owners of mobile numbers by telcos were leaked. Hackers attempted to sell off the data of 46 million mobile phone owners in Malaysia, making it Asia’s largest data breach to date. (TechWire)
In June 2022, you called out to CyberSecurity Malaysia for its slow response to a report of a major personal data breach last month involving the International Trade and Industry Ministry’s (Miti) Public-private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation (Pikas) programme. (Malaysiakini)
Then in Sept 2022, in a statement issued, pushed the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to look into Malaysia’s cyber security and you also called out to the prime minister to instruct all ministries and government agencies to immediately conduct a cybersecurity audit to identify and close any gaps that may put Malaysians’ personal data at further risk of being stolen following a reported breach of the government's online salary system by cybercriminals who might have stolen one million sets of personal data as well as two million salary slips. (FMT)
In the same month ie Sept 2022, in a public statement, you also mooted 5 steps for immediate implementation in ‘war’ against scammers.
This is not a problem that can be easily solved by slapping a legislative band-aid and hoping it resolves itself.
There needs to be a drastic shift of mindsets and especially urgency to recognize these as priorities.
What say you?
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