KUALA LUMPUR: The Economy Ministry will organise a briefing session with representatives from Sarawak government to discuss security measures of the Central Database Hub (Padu) in the near future.

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said it is committed to addressing all questions and concerns raised by the Sarawak government.

"I take note of the media statement by the Deputy Minister in the Sarawak Premier's Department (Legal, MA63, and State-Federal Relations) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali regarding the implementation of Padu in Sarawak.

"The government will always ensure the safe handling of data, including system security, networks, and data protecting personal information," he said.

Rafizi said the data in the Padu system is official government information protected under the Official Secrets Act 1972 (Act 88) and subject to all security protection directives issued by the Chief Government Security Office (CGSO).

"Any unauthorised access, upload, download, modification, addition, or dissemination of any data is a criminal offence.

"Besides Act 88, data including computer equipment is also protected under the Computer Crimes Act 1997 (Act 563), which generally states that any unauthorised access or use of any device, information (data) or computer system is an offence," he said in a statement.

Rafizi said the system development team always closely collaborates with various agencies managing national cybersecurity and data privacy.

"To date, no information leakage issues have been reported despite two to 2.3 million attempted attacks on Padu within a week.

"The Padu system is developed internally using the expertise of existing civil servants without involving external consultants.

"This decision reduces the risk of information leakage as external parties do not have direct access to Padu."

He said employee integrity assessments are taken into account through security screening processes by CGSO, and data access is only allowed to appointed personnel and limited to their respective roles.

"Padu has seen a sudden increase in registration rates throughout the past week.

"As of 11.59pm on March 24, the number of registrations have increased to 7.7 million, from 5.4 million recorded on March 17," he said.

Yesterday, the Sarawak government sought clarification from the Economy Ministry on the security of personal data it is currently collecting under the Padu initiative.

Hasidah said security implementation and protocols are not only important for the Sarawak government to fully support the federal government's initiative but also necessary to protect the interests of Sarawakians.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/03/1030615/economy-ministry-will-organise-session-representatives-sarawak