KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 10): Malaysia's Auditor General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang said the Government was "racing to catch up" with new digital regulations, as the public and private sectors contend with cybersecurity and data-breach risks.

Ambrin said this would lead to new and emerging laws on tax, privacy and data handling.

"There are new regulatory requirements that the Government is racing to catch up [with], leading to new and emerging laws on tax, privacy and data handling.

"There is also a growing need for cybersecurity risks to be addressed. Breach of data is something that businesses should [be] very worried about,” he said at The Institute of Internal Auditors 2016 National Conference here today.

Ambrin said a crucial challenge for the Government was technology implementation. This was despite explicit development of infrastructure and services to encourage IT usage in the public sector.
 
“The public sector in the last decade has embarked on the technology era, with explicit development of infrastructure and services to support and shape how technology helps create value for the Government. However, along the way, the public sector has been faced with many challenges. Foremost is the implementation of technology.

“Internal auditors in both public and private sectors hold an important role to review the strategic IT operating model. They are in the position [of] proposing changes to rules, processes and behaviours, in line with the rapid speed [of change] of new technologies,” he said.