Goh Chee Hoh
KUCHING: Tech companies lauded the government’s commitment in its 5G nationwide rollout with allocations given under the recently announced Budget 2022.
“Budget 2022 is clear in its intent to maximise the potential of the digital economy, particularly in its focus to expand the 5G ecosystem under the National Digital Network Plan (Jendela).
“It is, therefore encouraging to see the government investing funds of up to RM700 million to improve connectivity across 47 industrial locations and 630 schools nationwide,” said Trend Micro Malaysia and Nascent Countries managing director Goh Chee Hoh commented.
However, he pointed out that as the government ramps up its bold initiatives to intensify digitalisation, it is imperative that cybersecurity stays top-of-mind for enterprises as they defend against the ever-increasing onslaught of cyber threats. The past year especially has seen cyber attacks escalating in complexity.
“While it is laudable that the Defense Ministry has been allocated RM16 billion to fortify our national borders, efforts should also go into strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity stance. This is especially critical when security-related incidents in recent times illustrate cybersecurity as a key infrastructure priority.
“As e-commerce and mobile devices and apps become an integral part of our lives, there are increasing concerns about data privacy with the prevalence of breaches and unauthorized sharing of personal information. We also urge the government to continue enhancing the nation’s existing cybersecurity regulations and privacy protection policies as a further deterrent to malicious activities.
“As more Malaysian organisations embark on their digital transformation journey, the need to be response ready in the event of an attack becomes even more pressing. The best option for them is to prepare in advance – protect critical assets and IT infrastructures, put in place detection technology to identify these attacks before they happen, and ready a plan for recovery and response should an attack be successful. These steps help organisations stay in control of the situation even if they have been compromised,” Goh said.
Eric Quah
Meanwhile, Red Hat Malaysia highlighted that there is a clear recognition of this in the 2022 National Budget. The Malaysian government is fortifying the country with strategic investments to be ready for Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) and to welcome the global digital economy.
“We applaud the government’s commitment to expand 5G services to 36 per cent of high-density areas including major cities in Johor, Selangor, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak in 2022. This commitment, tied with the investment of 30 billion ringgit through government-linked companies (GLCs) under the Perkukuh Pelaburan Rakyat (PERKUKUH) initiative, will be critical to Malaysia’s transition to 5G and infrastructure modernisation.
“We see tremendous opportunity for us to further accelerate and power the digital journey with our customers across Malaysia.
“We believe 5G will be the foundation for a new wave of innovation and opportunities. Across the world, the telecommunications industry is testing 5G innovations and multi-access edge computing (MAEC) technology.
“The dawn of 5G exponentially expands the capabilities and potential of connected IoT and business applications, boosted by the consistency of low latency and higher bandwidth availability to all.
“Adopting 5G-driven IoT technologies will benefit multiple industries, including the public sector, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture and transportation – all of which are also key investment areas outlined in the 2022 National Budget,” Red Hat Malaysia Country manager Eric Quah commented.