Bursa M’sia working with vendors to address glitch

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Bhd is working continuously with vendors on a thematic review to identify and address possible software issues, said chief executive officer Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift.

He said the scope for the thorough and independent systems review is currently being finalised, adding that an external party will be appointed later this year.

“We take the two trading incidents – one in December 2019 and the other in July 2020 – very seriously, and we would like to reassure our stakeholders that those disruptions were caused by technical issues, not infrastructure or cybersecurity-related issues,” he said to Bernama.

Muhamad Umar emphasised that the Exchange’s systems remain secure and protected, adding that together with its partner, NASDAQ, the Exchange had taken immediate action to resolve the issues and will apply the lessons learned to prevent recurrence in the future.

“We have stepped up monitoring of our core systems and infrastructure. We have also begun and are committed to investing further to upgrade and increase the capacity and capabilities of our core systems,” he said.

Muhamad Umar added that the Exchange also conducts frequent industrywide business continuity exercises as well as stress testing to ensure that its critical systems and partners remain robust and reliable.

To recap, trading on Bursa Malaysia was halted on July 16, 2020 due to a glitch in the system – the second such incident to occur within the span of a year.

On Dec 19, 2019, a glitch resulted in trading being suspended in the last 15 minutes of trading hours.