KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 (NNN-Bernama) — Although digital transformation has helped the country in overcoming the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, its exponential evolution has also increased cyber risks and amplified its impact, said Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
He cited the World Economic Forum 2023 Global Cybersecurity Outlook, which stated that 93 per cent of cyber leaders and 86 per cent of cyber business leaders believe that geopolitical instabilities make a catastrophic cyber event likely in the next two years.
“Among cyber business leaders, 43 per cent believe that a catastrophic cyber event will have a material impact on their own business; yet only 27 per cent of business leaders believe they have achieved cyber resilience.
“This significant gap between cyber resilient companies and the likelihood of a material catastrophic impact is worrisome, and this needs to be addressed collectively by governments, businesses, academia as well as the civil society,” he said.
Anwar said this in a speech text read by Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof, who officiated the opening ceremony of The Cyber Defence & Security Exhibition and Conference (CYDES) 2023 on his behalf, Monday.
The prime minister added that according to the State of Cyber Threat Intelligence Report, 26,900 vulnerabilities were reported in 2022, of which 55 per cent were remotely exploitable.
Threat actors exposed or stole 22.62 billion credentials and personal records, ranging from account and financial information to email and social security numbers.
Anwar said to counter this, governments worldwide have placed cyber security on their national agenda, pledging their commitment to work towards an open, secure, stable, interoperable and peaceful cyberspace, based on the principle of responsible state behaviour.
“Discussions at the United Nations have made remarkable progress, and Malaysia hopes that they will continue to progress, given the challenging geo-political landscape.
“Governments need to demonstrate the critical importance of common norms, rules and principles of state behaviour and continue the efforts to ensure their effective implementation,” he added.
He said that at the national level, securing the cyber ecosystem can only be achieved by good governance and effective strategies with measurable outcomes.
Organised by the National Security Council, the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) and Alpine Integrated Solution Sdn Bhd, CYDES 2023 is being held from Monday until Thursday at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre, with the theme “Building Cyber Resilience: Safeguarding The Digital Future”.
— NNN-BERNAMA
