MALAYSIA is one of three Asean countries that are expected to contribute 75% to the cybersecurity services market share by 2025, said Communication and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.

He said with the fast-growing opportunities in the digital economy, including the phenomenal growth of the cybersecurity industry, the government has envisioned forward-looking strategies, which include continuing to produce high-income talent to elevate national productivity.

“(Other strategies) are to develop Malaysia as a leading country within the Asean region with robust resources for advanced cybersecurity analytics and forensic resources, and to successfully enhance national cybersecurity preparedness to secure growth in the digital economy,” he said at the launch of Asia Pacific University’s (APU) Cybersecurity Talent Zone today.

The Cybersecurity Talent Zone features a fully functional Security Operations Centre (SOC) that allows students to have hands-on cybersecurity operations experience.

The initiative sees APU teaming up with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation and industry players from Malaysia, the UK and France.

Gobind said according to a LinkedIn report last December, women comprise 21% of Malaysia’s cybersecurity workforce, compared with the US’ 11%.

“The overall situation, though, is that the ‘funnel’ of new talent is too small. It is insufficient to sustain and support the growing demands of our digital economy.”

He said Malaysia’s focus will be on empowerment programmes, such as encouraging Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, graduates to have a career in cybersecurity, as well as growing artificial intelligence knowledge and capability.

On the Cybersecurity Talent Zone, he said the initiative is timely, as the demand for cybersecurity talent in Malaysia is due to hit 10,500 by 2020, as stated in Frost & Sullivan’s recent digital talent study.

He added that as cyberthreats continue to grow rapidly, it is necessary for graduates to have access to and operate in a real-life environment, as provided by SOC, so as to harness skills in proactive security monitoring and incident response. – Bernama, October 5, 2018.