MORE than 1,500 cyberattacks were made against ministries’ infrastructure systems this year, and despite the large number of attacks, all were successfully detected and dealt with, says Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) said the total number of attacks as of September stood at 1,547.
“Cyberattacks were detected and successfully dealt with through continuous monitoring and immediate action by the National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa).
“The National Security Council (MKN) and JPM (Prime Minister’s Department) also played its role in dealing with cyberattacks,” she said in a written parliamentary reply to a question from Datuk Suhaimi Nasir (BN-Libaran).
Suhaimi had asked about the number of cyberattacks on ministries’ infrastructure that were detected from 2022 and if existing security measures were enough to repel such attacks.
“To ensure the government’s cyberinfrastructure is secured and able to repel cyberattacks, the National Cyber Coordination and Command Centre (NC4) will continue to provide recommended best practices to all agencies.
“This includes ensuring agencies are equipped with the most up-to-date anti-virus software and have strong cybersecurity measures in place,” Dr Zaliha said.
She said NC4 would also help to develop and implement services continuity plans in case any system is ever compromised.
NC4 would also look into implementing the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and have frequent reviews of agencies’ network segmentation, she added.
“This is to control possible security threats from spreading throughout the said agency’s network,” she further explained.
Malaysia has the Cybersecurity Act 2024 (Act 854), which came into force on Aug 26.
The Act aims to enhance national cybersecurity, where within six hours of discovering a cybersecurity incident or even a potential threat, an authorised person will have to make an initial report to NC4.
The six-hour rule applies to attacks on information in sectors deemed critical to the nation, including defence, finance, water and healthcare services.
According to statistics from Nacsa and MKN, government agencies saw 1,633 cyberattacks last year.
This was an encouraging decrease compared to the 4,378 cyberattacks reported against government agencies in 2022.
