JOHOR BARU: The existing laws relating to cybersecurity and IT management in Malaysia need to be reviewed and enhanced to ensure they are relevant to technological developments and risks, in the wake of Friday’s global tech outage, says an expert.

Yayasan Digital Malaysia cybersecurity chief Mohamad Zulfahmy Roslan said stricter and clearer laws would provide a solid foundation for protecting the country’s digital infrastructure.

“This includes highly-regulated sectors such as financial institutions, which should be made to comply with strict security processes to avoid any disruptions.

“The government can also introduce more stringent guidelines and ensure these institutions undergo regular IT security audits.

“These measures will help reduce the risks of disruptions that could affect economic stability and spark public concern,” he said.

Mohamad Zulfahmy said this when asked to comment on the global outage involving computer systems running the Windows operating system that were caused by a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to its digital security platform.

The incident threw the operations of numerous companies into turmoil, including airlines, banks, media and hospitals in countries such as the United States, Britain, Australia, India, South Korea and Singapore.

Malaysia was not spared, with several airlines hit, leading to chaos to their flight times as well as reservation and check-in systems. Some rail and hospital services were affected too.

Mohamad Zulfahmy noted that it was crucial for the government and organisations to implement BCDR (business continuity and disaster recovery) strategies.

“BCDR ensures that organisations have clear plans and steps that can be quickly taken to restore operations and minimise the impact of disruptions.

“These include having frequent data back-ups, regularly testing disaster recovery plans and conducting staff training on emergency procedures,” he said.

Only with these measures would the country and the public be protected from the negative effects of global system disruptions, he added.

The incident, Mohamad Zulfahmy said, clearly demonstrated how critical digital infrastructure was in the people’s daily lives.

“Such disruptions not only impact business operations but can also threaten lives, especially in crucial sectors like healthcare,” he said.

CrowdStrike has since deployed a fix to its customers, with those operations affected gradually returning to normal.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/07/22/enhance-cyber-laws-to-meet-todays-demands-says-expert