Malaysia Supports Coordinated ASEAN Cybersecurity Approach, Says Minister Eddin

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia supports a coordinated approach to cybersecurity efforts in ASEAN, says Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Eddin Syazlee Shith. Eddin said that a discussion had taken place among ministers responsible for telecommunications and IT together with ministers in charge of cybersecurity, on how to move forward on cybersecurity issues in ASEAN. This discussion stems from the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Cybersecurity Cooperation from the 32nd ASEAN Summit held in Singapore in April 2018. In the statement, the ASEAN Leaders had called for relevant Ministers to closely consider and submit recommendations on feasible options of coordinating cybersecurity policy, diplomacy, cooperation, technical and capacity building efforts among various platforms of the three pillars of ASEAN, so that ASEAN’s efforts are focused, effective, and coordinated holistically on this important cross-cutting issue. “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,” said Eddin in a statement issued here. Eddin was here attending the Third ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity 2018. The Deputy Minister reiterated that Malaysia supports a coordinated approach to address cybersecurity issues within ASEAN, and similar to many other challenges in the digital space, cybersecurity is not an issue which can be managed by one single entity but is 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,” he 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 Third ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity 2018 is being held in conjunction with the Third Singapore International Cyber Week from Sept 18 – 20, 2018. -- BERNAMA