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PM expected to announce measures to beef up cyber security in 2023 Budget

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is expected to announce mesures to strengthen cyber security during the tabling of the revised 2023 Budget tomorrow.

Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil, speaking in the Dewan Rakyat, said it was imperative that public agencies, including state governments, allocate funds in their respective annual budgets for Information Technology (IT) for this purpose.

He said there was a need for a streamlined law through the proposed establishment of a Cyber Security Commission.

"At the same time, the ministry, through CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM), must be more proactive and get in touch with state governments and related agencies when there are any data leak incidents.

"We are attempting to implement a cyber security audit at the federal and state government level. We hope there will be good news announced by Tambun (Anwar) tomorrow," he said in reply to a question from Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan).

Lim had asked in what action would be taken against those behind the hacking of the Penang state government's official website last month, which left personal information of more than 600,000 people compromised.

The leaked data had allegedly been uploaded to the "BreachForums" forum site by a user nicknamed "LeakBase"' on Jan 18.

Earlier, Fahmi said Malaysia must consider quantum cryptography in relation to data security, as other countries were in discussion on post-quantum cryptography.

"The issue of data sovereignty and portability is also being discussed heavily at the Asean level," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Pasir Puteh.

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