CyberSecurity Malaysia Collaboration Program to optimise industry resources
By Madihah Zulfa Mohamad, Manager & Zailin Marjuni, Executive at Cyber Security Industry Engagement & Collaboration Department, Corporate Strategy & Industry Affairs Division
CyberSecurity Malaysia, the national cybersecurity specialist and technical agency has launched the CyberSecurity Malaysia Collaboration Program (CCP).
Recognising that public and private sectors need to work together to address challenges, the CCP serves as a strategic collaboration to maximise collective resources from everyone, be they from industry, academia or the public sector.
CyberSecurity Malaysia ‘s CEO, Dato’ Ts. Dr. Haji Amirudin Abdul Wahab shared during his welcome remark that recent trends at global and national level, are pointing to an explosion of hyper connectivity.
“Attackers now disrupt more people through various devices, creating extensive breaches every year and critical damages affecting organisations and individuals.”
He also pointed out that because of evolving attacks and technologies that hackers use, as well as laws that are fragmented, “…it is imperative that both public and private sectors explore potential collaboration to leverage perspectives and experience of governments, industry, civil and academia in addressing these Cyber Security challenges.”
Increasing complexity
It is worth noting that Malaysia and in fact the world all over is getting on the Industry 4.0 bandwagon, which is characterised by technologies that are familiar like cloud, analytics and connectivity, but also requires the fusion of all these technologies, with new tech like Internet of Things, augmented reality, virtual reality, and more.
All these have to happen seamlessly across physical, digital and biological worlds. Current cybersecurity solutions, know-how, and even experience is not ready, much less equipped, to handle this.
Dato’ Dr. Amirudin said, “To address cyber risk in the age of Industry 4.0, advanced cybersecurity strategies that are vigilant and resilient should be integrated into organisation and IT strategy.
“All parties should be fundamentally aligned with a common shared desire to identify and implement the effective measures for this.”
Cyber Security Industry Dialogue
In conjunction with the launch, an industry-level dialogue was also conducted with members of OIC-CERT Board members, as panellists. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – Computer Emergency Response Teams (OIC-CERT) was established to support seamless co-operation among its 24 member countries, which sees Oman as the chair, and Malaysia as the Permanent Secretariat.
Titled, “Cybersecurity Industry Development Landscape in OIC-CERT Countries’, members from Oman, Indonesia, Egypt, Azerbaijan shared about cybersecurity initiatives within their own countries.
Oman’s representative pointed out his observations that private sectors are different from public sectors, because private sectors must have return on investments (ROI) to any initiative that they start.
He also shared about Oman’s digital forensics lab which CyberSecurity Malaysia had helped them build and achieve internationally accredited status. Within Malaysia, there is an internationally accredited digital forensics lab that is managed and operated by CyberSecurity Malaysia.
During the second portion of the industry dialogue, CyberSecurity Malaysia’s Head of MySEF (Malaysian Security Evaluation Facility), Norahana Salimin and CSM’s Head of Department, Information Security Certification Body (ISCB), Wan Shafiuddin Zainuddin, each presented about product certification and people certification, respectively.
Norahana shared that CyberSecurity Malaysia has certified up to 82 products, to date, while Wan Shafiuddin pointed out that Malaysia has top 3 cybersecurity ranking in the eyes of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) because of our active initiatives around certification.
CyberSecurity Malaysia MySEF (Malaysian Security Evaluation Facility) is an accredited laboratory under the Laboratory Scheme Accreditation of Malaysia (SAMM). which meets the requirements of MS ISO/IEC 17025.
ISO/IEC 17025 is the main ISO standard used by testing and calibration laboratories. In most countries, ISO/IEC 17025 is the standard for which most labs must hold accreditation in order to be deemed technically competent.
There is also an internationally accredited digital forensics lab in Malaysia that is managed and operated by CSM.
CyberSecurity Malaysia Collaboration Program
Circling back to the newly launched CCP.
Cybersecurity initiatives tend to be heavily led by the government. So, how does the industry and private organisations get involved, whilst still maintaining ROI objectives?
CyberSecurity Malaysia’s CEO has stated that the CCP is a strategic initiative for industry and government entities to balance and prioritise the limited resources.
By becoming a CyberSecurity Malaysia participant, an organisation will gain access to CyberSecurity Malaysia’s various products, services and programs that can help accelerate a company’s growth.
These programs are developed on CyberSecurity Malaysia’s domain expertise and experience across the cybersecurity value chain.
Participants will also gain access to potential collaborations and synergies with CyberSecurity Malaysia , related government entities and with other collaborators.
By leveraging each other’s strengths, participants can bridge market gaps with relevant cybersecurity products and services.
In summary, by being either Registered, Strategic, or a Network partner, organisations gain access to limitless business networking opportunities, cybersecurity training and professional development programs, cybersecurity product and service certifications, as well as research opportunities.
The CCP programs is in line with Malaysia CyberSecurity Resilience Programme (MyCSRP) which implements cybersecurity programmes in a comprehensive and integrated manner, with the objective of raising the level of of readiness and resilience national cybersecurity.
MyCSRP is slated to come into effect during the 12th Malaysia Plan, with CyberSecurity Malaysia leading the initiative on behalf of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia.
Visit https://ccp.cybersecurity.my for more information on CCP. For another enquiry, email the secretariat at ccp@cybersecurity.my.