CCISO recipients (from left) Solahuddin, Bavisi, Amirudin and CyberSecurity Malaysia senior vice-president, corporate services division Mohd Roslan Ahmad.
CYBERSecurity Malaysia (CSM), an agency under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, has successfully trained its top information security executives in the EC-Council’s Certified Chief Information Security Officers (CCISO) programme.
The initiative is seen as important as there is a great scarcity of CISOs (chief information security officers) or capable information security leaders in Malaysia, and many strategic organisations are operating without a CISO as part of their company hierarchy.
CSM leadership has shown dedication in addressing this challenge head-on by training information security professionals in the five domains of the CCISO programme.
Speaking on the success of the partnership, EC-Council president and co-founder Jav Bavisi said the training would have an impact not only on participating executives but also on the region’s cybersecurity as a whole.
“We hope that by training these talented InfoSec executives in the Certified CISO Body of Knowledge, we will actually see a change in the overall security posture implementation of the Government as well as the business community of Malaysia,” he said.
The CCISO programme addresses how to align information security with the goals of the business or organise with the effect of creating a security programme that is integral to a business or organisation’s success.
One of the greatest challenges for an information security programme is overcoming the organisation’s culture in which it operates, and to go from being seen as a hindrance to progress to becoming an important component of success.
“The biggest challenge in Asean countries now is the lack of focused leadership for information security within organisations.
It translates to a drastically low number of CISOs in the government and corporate sectors,” said EC-Council Global Services (EGS) executive director Danish Arshad.
“It also creates individual silos within organisations of various departments, all contributing to information security but working independently, leading to gaps in the information security eco-system that cyber-criminals can exploit.
“CSM has shown great leadership by example by emphasising the importance of skilled information security leadership in a particular security ecosystem of a organisation,” he said.
CSM chief executive officer Dr Amiruddin Abdul Wahab said training was a way to provide opportunity to acquire knowledge, develop and strengthen skills, not to mention eliminate weaknesses.
“A development programme such as CCISO brings employees to another level, making them posses the ability to perform effectively and confidently. We are proud to announce that our chief technology officer (CTO) Dr Solahuddin Shamsuddin received the highest score in the world for CCISO, making him one of the Top 10 CISO globally,” he added.
CSM encourages its employees to equip themselves with new sets of knowledge and skills. Employees with cyber-security skills are seen as critical in protecting digital infrastructures.
“We need cyber-security professionals who understand what works in theory and practice. With the nation facing new and dynamic risks, threats, and vulnerabilities, a highly skilled cyber security workforce capable of responding to these challenges is needed more than ever,” added Amirudin.
