Eddin Syazlee Shith
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia supports a coordinated approach to cybersecurity efforts in Asean, said Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Eddin Syazlee Shith.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Third Asean Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity 2018 in Singapore, he said that a discussion had taken place among ministers responsible for telecommunications and information technology (IT) together with ministers in charge of cybersecurity, on how to move forward on cybersecurity issues in Asean.
“The state of the internet today, coupled with the rapid development of the digital economy, makes it such that there can never be too many discussions on cybersecurity at the ministerial level,” he said in a statement issued by the ministry.
In expressing Malaysia’s support for a coordinated approach to address cybersecurity issues within Asean, and similar to many other challenges in the digital space, he said cybersecurity was not an issue which could be managed by one single entity but was a multi-fora effort.
“Subject to consultation with other relevant ministries and agencies in Malaysia, the preference at this point in time would be for one of the existing sectoral bodies within Asean to coordinate this issue, with an expanded mandate, rather than to establish a new sectoral body which would be too costly,” the deputy minister said.
The existing sectoral bodies currently managing various aspects of cybersecurity in the region are the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), Asean Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC), Asean Regional Forum Inter-Sessional Meeting on Security of and in the Use of ICTs (ARF ISM-ICTs) and Asean Telecommunications and IT Ministers Meeting (TELMIN). The cybersecurity conference is being held in conjunction with the Third Singapore International Cyber Week, from Sept 18 to 21. – Bernama