CYBER THREAT OF ATTACK IS REAL AND DANGEROUS, SAYS RENOWNED CYBER SECURITY EXPERT

KOTA KINABALU (Malaysia), Oct 14 (Bernama) -- The threat of cyber attacks is
real and dangerous, especially to governmental and critical infrastructure
organisations, says the Symantec Director of Government Relations and Public
Affairs Programme for Europe, Middle Eastern Africa (EMEA) and Asia, the Pacific
and Japan (APJ), Ilias Chantzos.

He said cyber threats due to data breaches and theft are often exploited
for financial gain or intelligence gathering.

"The threat of a cyber attack is real. Cyber threats targeting large
government repositories are motivated by profit, since governments store
considerable amounts of personal identification which if fraudulently obtained,
can be sold on underground economy servers.

"This can also include sensitive information such as patent data, scientific
research and technology exports," he told reporters at a news conference, here
Thursday.

He said last year alone, a majority of the data breaches took place in the
education (20 per cent), government (13 per cent) and healthcare (15 per cent)
sectors.

The data breaches he added, happened mainly due to theft or loss (37 per
cent) followed by insecure policies (26 per cent).

In this respect, Chantzos called on the Malaysian government to review the
national cybersecurity framework, in a move to protect the country's critical
infrastructure.

In making the call, he also said there was a need for the country to foster
stronger collaboration at the national and transnational level.

He said the government should partner with industry associations to develop
and disseminate information to raise awareness of the critical infrastructure
protection organisations and plans.

"Specific information should include how a response would work in the face
of a national cyber attack, what the role of government and industry would be,
who the specific contacts are for various industries at a regional and national
level, and how government and private business would share information in the
event of an emergency," he explained.

Chantzos said the government should also emphasise that security alone is
not enough to stay resilient in the face of today's cyber attacks.

"Critical infrastructure providers and enterprises should also ensure that
their information is stored, backed up, organised and prioritised with proper
identity and access control processes in place,' he added.

The Brussels-based Symantec is a global leader in providing security,
storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organisation
secure and manage their information-driven world.

Chantzos said the Symantec Global Intelligence Network is the largest and
most sophisticated globally, processing over eight billion email messages daily
and gathers malicious code data from 130 million systems.

He said Symantec's security research centres around the world, including in
Malaysia, provide unparalleled analysis of and protection from malware, security
risks and vulnerabilities.

-- BERNAMA