CYBERSECURITY MALAYSIA SETS UP MALWARE RESEARCH CENTRE

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- CyberSecurity Malaysia has set up
CyberSecurity Malaysia Malware Research Centre to ensure that Malaysians are
adequately prepared and protected from malware.

In a statement, CyberSecurity said the centre would come up with better
techniques to detect and mitigate malware threat, advisories and alerts on
malware information with local and international partners and the development of
expertise to deal with malware.

"Left unchecked, malware can compromise a user's confidential information,
expose Internet activities to scrutiny and/or turn computers into zombies for
launching denial-of-service attacks," it said.

Malware, a blend of two words 'malicious software' is purposely designed to
infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's consent.

CyberSecurity, a Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation agency, said
for the first ten months of this year, the reported number of cyber incidents
rose 87 per cent compared to the whole of last year with close to 3,000 security
incidents being handled.

"Of the figures, reported malware incidents accounted for 7.6 per cent, or
225, of the total reported incident cases," it said.

Its chief executive officer, Lt Col (Rtd) Husin Jazri, said it was high time
that users took responsibility for their fundamental rights to Internet access
by getting educated on cyber threats and how they could avoid becoming victims
of cyber crimes.

He said as part of its awareness activities, the agency would take the lead
on this year's World Computer Security Day on Nov 30, with the theme "Computer
Security is Everyone's Responsibility".

Meanwhile, the agency said Malaysian netizens who were victims of computer
security breaches or any illegal activity in cyberspace were encouraged to
contact Cyber999 Help Centre at 1-300-2999, email to cyber999@cybersecurity.my
or filling up an online report at www.cybersecurity.my.

-- BERNAMA