ISKANDAR PUTERI: The Digital Ministry advises all parties in the country seeking information technology (IT) services and assistance following the global IT outage on July 19 to ensure that the company is legitimate and qualified.
Its minister Gobind Singh Deo said the ministry has detected several irresponsible parties ‘creating’ domains (websites) to gather information and misuse the data they obtain.
He said the ministry, through the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) and Cyber Security Malaysia (CSM), has looked into the matter and hopes the people and companies will be more vigilant about IT attacks and the presence of such parties.
“If there are parties claiming they can assist and solve (IT issues), we must ensure they are experts and legitimate; otherwise, we open the door for our data to be misused.
“At the same time, the ministry will also ensure that mitigation measures are strengthened... we are serious, and weaknesses will be addressed while keeping up to date with IT developments,” he told reporters after the groundbreaking ceremony of the TM and Singtel Nxera data centre campus in Iskandar Puteri EduCity here today.
Present at the event were Singapore’s Senior Minister for Trade and Industry, Youth, Low Yen Ling, who is also Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Johor Investment, Trade, Consumer Affairs and Human Resources Committee chairman Lee Ting Han.
Gobind said last week’s incident was not an IT attack but rather a system update, and the public need not worry as there was no data leakage.
On today’s event, Gobind said the collaboration between the two telecommunications giants from Malaysia and Singapore could elevate Malaysia’s status as a digital hub in Southeast Asia, thereby unlocking the potential for global investment centres.
Based on initial estimates, Malaysia’s economy grew by 5.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, and such investments align with projections that Malaysia’s digital economy will contribute 25.5 per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product by the end of the year.
“The opening of this data centre is also crucial as we are moving towards 2025, when Malaysia will chair the ASEAN meetings. We also want to showcase that Malaysia can be a prime investment destination,” he said.
