HACKING MAY JEOPARADISE MALAYSIAN NATIONAL SECURITY

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Cyberattacks and threats from hackers might jeopardise national security at large, even if they are not politically motivated, say local experts. 

Executive director and senior IT security consultant of LE Global Services Sdn Bhd, Fong Choong Fook said hackers and cybertroopers might be aiming for critical national infrastructures to bring down a country, government or those in power.

Recently, a video purported to be from a group of hackers calling itself Anonymous Malaysia surfaced on social media and it declared an all-out cyberwar against Putrajaya. 
In the video, a masked person, representing the group, also threatened to use all sources available for their internet warfare in support of a rally planned in Kuala Lumpur on August 29 and 30.
Commenting on the threat, Fong said he personally thought that the group was just bluffing and did not mean busines.
"Website hacking is common, and shall be perceived as a 'blessing' because when a website gets hacked, the public gets to know about it.

• "In our line of work as investigators, we have seen criminals hack into servers and hide within the server for years, to capture corporate trade secrets and sensitive data," he added.
• But on a positive note, Fong drove home the point that hackers were only looking for an opening and excuse to execute their plan for joyrides in cyberspace.
• "Hackers are like you and me, it's very hard to generalise what a hacker really wants. Of course there are opportunists, who only prey for their own benefits.
• Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Information and Communications Faculty dean, Professor Dr Abdullah Mohd Zin, said usually hackers did not get involved in politics.

He said the best way for the government to protect its critical national information infrastructure was to have top grade cybersecurity.

"Various agencies like CyberSecurity Malaysia are up to the task," he said.

He added that systems in lower-level entities like district offices whose security systems were not upgraded regularly are more vulnerable to such attacks.

Sumber: Bernama, August 12, 2015.