Cybersecurity challenges

FOR those old enough, do you remember the 1983 movie War Games? In the movie, teenage computer hacker David Lightman (played by a very young Matthew Broderick) unwittingly hacks into WOPR, a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. He got WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation caused a national nuclear scare and nearly started World War III.

Fast-forward to this millennium, with the sophistication of ICT, fiction has turned into reality. Such threats - but done with full intent to cripple national computer networks - are possible scenarios many countries are preparing for.

In the US, President Barack Obama has named cybersecurity as "one of the most serious" challenges facing the nation. He announced in May to appoint a cybersecurity czar who would help the US government work hand-in-hand with the private sector to protect the country's cyber infrastructure.

Malaysia faces similar challenges where cybersecurity, especially national security, is concerned. And Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) has taken upon itself to address the issue of cybersecurity expertise in the country through a recently inked memorandum of undertsanding with the EC-Council, a global provider of IT security certification.

UPNM, through its Department of Computer Science, has established IT security programmes and is committed to produce IT security experts for Malaysia, especially in the Malaysian Armed Forces. To strengthen its IT security academic offerings, the university intends to integrate EC- Council certification programmes into its curriculum.

For starters, lecturers who are certified as EC-Council instructors will train some 200 final-year students for courses such as Ethical Hackers and Digital Forensics. The students can then get professional certification from the EC-Council such as Certified Ethical Hacker and Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator.

UPNM's vice chancellor Lt General Datuk Pahlawan Zulkifli Zainal Abidin said the university will promote the EC-Council's programmes to Government bodies such as the Defence Ministry and Malaysian Armed Forces. This, he pointed out, will increase expertise in the defence-related IT security fields.

A recent report cited a few challenges faced by the US government in ensuring cybersecurity such as inadequate supply of potential new IT experts, unco-ordinated leadership of cybersecurity workers, and a cumbersome hiring process that discourages people from seeking government jobs and failing to provide a career path for those who do.

UPNM has taken steps to address the challenge of inadequate supply of potential new IT experts. Now, it's time to address the rest. If not, the sovereignty of our country will continue to be at risk - at least, in the cyberworld.