Cyber security a top priority for public and private sector, says report

KUALA LUMPUR: As Malaysia gears up for the transformation towards a fully digital economy, cybersecurity awareness is of paramount importance for the public and private sectors, according to the Akamai Second Quarter 2017 ( 2Q17) State of the Internet / Security Report.

It said recent collaborations, such as between the Malaysia Digital Economy Corp ( MDEC) and Alibaba in establishing the world’s first Digital Free Trade Zone, and partnership between Cybersecurity Malaysia and the Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation, highlighted the importance of cybersecurity.

The report said cyberattacks, including total web application attacks, Denial of Service ( DDoS) attacks and reflectionbased attacks had increased in frequency, methods of attack and efficacy.

Though DDoS attacks remain a constant threat, the report showed that the number of IP addresses producing DDoS traffic had plummeted in 2Q17.

It said Malaysia ranked 18 globally in web application attack sources, while Singapore, on the other hand, dropped off the top 10 source country list for web application attacks, with a 50 per cent decrease in attack traffic from the 1Q17 to 2Q17.

Akamai’s findings also highlighted the increase in the number of DDoS attacks on gaming companies, which was of particular significance to Malaysia, as the gaming PC market value in the country is estimated at US$ 47.03 million ( US$1= RM4.28). — Bernama