KUALA LUMPUR (July 28): With the acceleration in digitisation spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, cybersecurity experts from CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Malaysian Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) believe traditional cybersecurity solutions are no longer sufficient, and that investments in new technology must be made.
CyberSecurity Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab said the traditional cybersecurity approach is unable to detect and tackle new sophisticated attacks such as the advanced persistent threat (APT).
“The advancement of digital technology is evolving at a rapid rate, compared to previous decades. We are now highly reliant on the internet and digital technology in our daily lives, as well as in our business operations,” the head of the government cybersecurity arm said during the web launch of Signing Cloud — a cloud-based pay-per-use digital signature platform — by Securemetric Bhd today.
“For an organisation to reduce cybersecurity vulnerability and gaps, it needs to focus on three areas: people, process and technology,” he said, adding there is a need to invest in new technologies to ensure solutions addressing cybersecurity vulnerability are included.
MDEC vice president of global growth acceleration Gopi Ganesalingam said the pandemic has pushed businesses to implement remote working, which requires a higher reliance on technology.
“The remote working trend has applied tremendous pressure on companies to upgrade their IT infrastructure including better (internet) access, better digital tools and better cybersecurity precautions.
“Secure digital access to company resources and systems are now extremely important as any attack can put a business in a very precarious position.” he said, adding cyber-attacks have significantly increased since the start of the Movement Control Order (MCO) on March 18.
To assist in companies’ digitalisation, Gopi said MDEC has rolled out multiple initiatives. A cybersecurity tech relief programme offers businesses free trials lasting between 30 to 90 days for services from participating local cybersecurity companies, while the 100 Go Digital initiative ensures companies going fully digital have access to the right resources.
Additionally, MDEC provides monetary support such as the SME (small and medium enterprise) Business Digitalisation Grant which provides up to RM5,000 for SMEs to digitalise their operations, and the Smart Automation Grant to help companies automate business processes.