Government / Public Policy

Cabinet agrees to amend two communications acts, says Annuar

KUALA LUMPUR: The cabinet yesterday agreed to amend the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Act 1998 to provide for stronger legal provisions against cybersecurity threats.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the proposed amendments were tabled by him to the cabinet yesterday and had been agreed upon.

"Hopefully, in the next Parliament sitting, we can table the amendments. Among the things that the amendments hope to look into are strengthening and having sufficient provisions related to cybersecurity," he said after launching the Axiata Cyber Fusion Centre in conjunction with the Celcom Business Tech Week Showcase 2022 at its headquarters here today.

Annuar said the amendments were crucial as the country's telecommunications ecosystem was facing threats of online frauds and hacking.

He said as a result of the threats, he invited the board of directors from four entities under his ministry, which are MCMC, the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Personal Data Protection Department, to discuss cybersecurity issues last week.

"The discussion was held to convey my perspective of the situation. As the minister responsible for these entities, I felt we are not doing enough, and the public needs some kind of assurance that we can protect them.

"So, through the discussion, I would like to see various angles to approach cases of scams and many others."

Meanwhile, Annuar, as Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation chairman, said there was a need to have an agency that could help the government control the data on the supply of food, such as chicken, to avoid any disruption in future.

He said to obtain the data, the agency may benefit from technologies such 5G and Internet of Things in implementing an application.

"As an example, if all farmers could install the IoT technology, we can gather the data on chicken supply, as well as use automation to make the poultry industry more efficient." -- Bernama

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