The National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) visited Kaspersky’s Transparency Center in Zurich, Switzerland, recently. It was with the objective of securing and further strengthening Malaysia’s resilience in facing cyberattacks through mutual collaboration.
It was the first time a high-ranking officer from Malaysia visited the company’s first-ever Transparency Center.
Built to enable trusted partners and government stakeholders to review the company’s code, software updates, and threat detection rules, the facility in Zurich is part of Kaspersky’s global network of Transparency Centers.
The company has since opened Transparency Centers in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Madrid (Spain), Rome (Italy), São Paulo (Brazil), Singapore, Tokyo (Japan), Utrecht (the Netherlands), and Woburn (the United States).
Kaspersky remains to be the only cybersecurity provider which offers governments and companies a rare and technical insight into its cybersecurity practices and source codes of its flagship consumer and enterprise solutions.
Mr. Rahamzan Bin Hashim, Chief Executive Officer of The National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) was received by Genie Sugene Gan, Head of Public Affairs for the Asia Pacific and Middle East, Turkey, and Africa regions at Kaspersky, together with Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.
“Cyberspace not only offers opportunities for social and economic development, but it also poses continuously evolving challenges and threats to regional and international peace and security. Thus, there is a need to strengthen cooperation and collaboration with multi-stakeholders to prevent and counter malicious cyber activities including private sectors and industries,” said Mr. Rahamzam.
He went on to add that the visit to Kaspersky Transparency Center could further enhance the guidelines for all quarters on methods that can be standardized to improve cybersecurity in Malaysia. Currently, NACSA and the National Security Council (MKN) are working on the country’s Cyber Security Awareness Master Plan (PIKKS).
“I attended the Kaspersky GTI briefing last October, and this visit is the follow-up after the last meeting. The management of cybersecurity should evolve simultaneously with the evolution of threats. Public and private sectors need to collaborate and learn from each other to combat today’s ever-growing threats. A sustainable approach is needed from all segments of society be it citizens, government, industry, and other partners to secure cyberspace,” he added.
The Kaspersky team also subsequently hosted national cybersecurity bodies from Thailand and Indonesia.
“At Kaspersky, our main goal is to really hold the gold standard of trust through our Global Transparency Initiative (GTI). It is our honor to host Mr. Rahamzan and the NACSA delegation here to further build mutual trust that can serve as a solid foundation for our next steps together,” comments Gan.
“Malaysia is now focused on building its cybersecurity capabilities as a nation and as part of the bigger ASEAN. Through this visit, we have shown our genuine transparency and our accountability to our Malaysian customers, partners, and the local government which is responsible for protecting its citizens. From here, we look forward to building on these trusted foundations and setting our eyes on conducting intelligence sharing and capacity building with NACSA to further boost the security of Malaysia’s cyberspace,” she adds.
Since the opening of the first Transparency Center in Switzerland in 2018, the company has organized over 25 visits, with enterprise customers becoming the most frequent guests. Information about Kaspersky’s data management practices has received the most attention from visitors, while source code reviews happen only occasionally, which could be explained by the existing need for cybersecurity capacities across organizations to properly approach product security evaluations.
Companies and public offices interested in visiting Kaspersky’s Transparency Centers can send their requests to [email protected].
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