KUALA LUMPUR: Cyber attacks can paralyse the whole nation if necessary counter-measures are not taken, according to an expert.
Tokyo-based Security Research vice president of Trend Micro, Rik Ferguson said the traffic system, electricity, water system and even airports were all at great risk when it comes to these kind of attacks.
“Anything that is connected to the network is vulnerable to attack but whether the vulnerabilities exist remains a question,” he told Bernama when met at an event here recently.
Ferguson pointed this out when he was asked to comment on a recent video by a group dubbed as ‘Anonymous’ posted on Youtube who had threatened to launch ‘all out warfare’ against the Malaysian government by attacking government web portals in a move seen as to topple the democratically elected government.
With cyber attacks increasing in frequency and intensity, the government as well as organisations need to accept the fact that they would not be able to keep threats out forever, he said. Thus, Ferguson said, the best treatment to any cyber attack was to store every data on the network securely.
“If the warning has been given it would be dangerous not to launch preventive measures. As such, it is crucial that any data is stored securely and encrypted,” he said. Ferguson, who is a former hacker himself, said this could be done by investing in an encryption solution that helps encrypt the data.
“They also need to make investment in content delivery network (the Internet content) such as ‘Cloudflare’ that helps to block threats, mitigating spam and other attacks,” he said. — Bernama