WEDNESDAY, 19 JULY 2017, KUALA LUMPUR: In light of the rising cyber security threat cases around the world, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) has taken the initiative organised a seminar titled ‘Cyber Security on Global Trade’ to build stronger awareness among Malaysian companies on how to deal with cyber security threats.

The event took place at Menara MATRADE and was attended by over 100 participants who were representatives from companies in various sectors such as aerospace, healthcare, telecommunication and Food & Beverages. Among the topics presented at the seminar were ‘Laws Under the Purview of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Corporation (MCMC)’, ‘Current Trend of Commercial Crimes’, ‘Cyber Threats: It’s Impact and What Can We Do?’ and ‘Cyber Security State of Affairs and Defence Mechanism’. The speakers were from MCMC, Royal Malaysian Police, SysArmy Sdn Bhd, and Emgraft Systems Sdn Bhd.

In Malaysia, the number of cyber crimes is increasing. According to Malaysia Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT) statistics, the total reported incidents of cyber threats in Malaysia in 2016 was 8,334 out of which, fraud and intrusion incidences were the highest, and accounted for 77% of the total reported cases. In addition, there were 1.13 million malware infections in Malaysia reported last year and as of April 2017, the figure stood at 331,165 cases. The number of cases is snowballing mainly due to the lack of awareness among Malaysians.

According to Senior Director of Exporters Transformation Division at MATRADE, Mr. Md Silmi Abd Rahman, cyber crimes affect not only individuals but businesses too and can be detrimental to the business health of Malaysian companies. “It is imperative for the business communities to equip themselves with the skills and knowledge to protect their company from being a cyber crime target. First step is to increase their awareness on the issue so they can learn how to mitigate the risks,” he said. “Despite the challenges and risks undertaken by Malaysian companies in finding the right foreign partners, appointing the genuine agents and to fulfil the global requirements to exporting, Malaysian companies must also be conscious of the cyber criminals and cyber attacks activities that vary from information leakages, stealing data, hacking and stalking, emails to financial frauds,” En Md Silmi added.

MATRADE as Malaysia’s trade promotion agency encourages Malaysian companies to take cyber security measures before embarking on any global ventures. The local industry players are advised engage with MATRADE to seek trade advisory prior to entering a foreign market.

As an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, MATRADE offers various trade advisory to Malaysian companies, particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises that make up around 97% of Malaysia’s business establishments. MATRADE’s advisory services are free for Malaysian companies and can greatly help Malaysian companies to become global champions. For more details, local companies could email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.