‘Beef up knowledge on cyber defence strategy’

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian enterprises need to beef up knowledge on cyber defence strategy, namely, in their network infrastructure, to manage and reduce cyber threats, said Cyber Security Malaysia.

Its Senior Vice President Cyber Security Responsive Services, Dr Aswami Ariffin, said it was a continuous effort by the agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to cut down the number of virus infection and cyber threats in the local companies.

Based on the numbers gathered by the agency, he said, among the states in Malaysia that were heavily attacked included Selangor, Penang and Johor.

“We would urge the organisations to be aware of this issue and to include the discussions even at the board level,” he told a media briefing on ‘Prioritising Security Response Measures Across Malaysian Enterprises’ yesterday.

Earlier, Managing Director of Trend Micro Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Goh Chee Hoh, briefed the media on the ransomware threat, which has rapidly emerged as a significant threat to businesses and organisations of all sizes.

He said the threat was a type of malware that would lock, encrypt or otherwise, prevent data and systems from being accessed by their owners.

“The victims later on are required to pay a ransom to the criminal responsible for the attack in order to regain access,” he said.

The ransomware is primarily distributed via spam and phishing emails that are sent to large numbers of emails addresses.

When a recipient opens an attachment or clicks a compromised link, the malware is loaded onto the user’s system.

Meanwhile, Aswami said, the agency was in discussions with the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to advise the central bank on the adoption of the blockchain technology in complementing the bitcoin trading. — Bernama