Malaysia's National Cyber Security Policy: The country's cyber defence initiatives

The launching of Malaysia's Vision 2020 mark the country's journey towards becoming a developed nation and embracing the knowledge-based economy as a mean of achieving it. By consciously choosing to utilize the information and communication technology as a tool for development, it has resulted in the increasing use of digital information systems throughout the industry, the private and public organizations and the society at large. However, the dependency on digital information systems bring with it escalating vulnerabilities and risks, especially to the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) which among others include cybercrimes such as Hacking, Intrusion, Fraud, Harassment, Malicious Code and Denial of Service Attacks. Acknowledging the growth of cyber threats that are endangering the e-Sovereignty of the nation, a cyber security policy was put in place. The National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP) is Malaysia's comprehensive cyber security implementation to be done in an integrated manner to ensure the CNII is protected to a level that commensurate the risks faced. Cutting across the government machineries, the implementation has drawn in various ministries and agencies to work together to meet the vision of having a CNII that is secured, resilient and self reliant that will eventually promote stability, social well being and wealth creation for the country. After 4 years of the NCSP implementation, the Malaysia's cyber security is now being looked as something to be reckon with. Much has been done and more need to be done as the landscape of cyber threats changes with the development of new technologies and tools. Successfully implemented, Malaysia's CNII will be better placed to meet the challenges and opportunities that technological advancement brings and that it will help to achieve the objectives of Vision 2020 and beyond.