Cybersecurity Malaysia appointed OIC-CERT secretariat

• CyberSecurity Malaysia appointed the secretariat to OIC-CERT
• Cyber Drill 2013 to be conducted to assess response capability of member agencies

CYBERSECURITY Malaysia (CSM), an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) has been appointed the secretariat to the Organization of the Islamic Conference-Computer Emergency Response Team (OIC-CERT).

The appointment was made at the OIC-CERT Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2012 that was recently held in Muscat, Oman. With this appointment, CSM now holds both the Chair and also Secretariat position at the OIC-CERT, the agency said in a statement.

"CyberSecurity Malaysia is proud and honored to be entrusted to lead the cyber-security efforts among OIC member countries. It is a recognition of the leadership, professionalism and technical expertise of CyberSecurity Malaysia by the members of the OIC-CERT in the field of cyber- security,” said Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Panglima Mohd Azumi Mohamed, CSM chairman and chair of the OIC-CERT.

In reinforcing the administrative structure of the OIC-CERT, the members have unanimously agreed on the idea of having an OIC-CERT Permanent Secretariat Office, which is beneficial for the continuance in the governance and smooth operation of the collaboration, CSM said.

Azumi added that the OIC-CERT has undergone various developments since the idea was conceived in 2005. 

"I am delighted to see new and potential members who grace the OIC-CERT event and this has a tremendous positive impact on our activities and has helped realize many great achievements that have advanced OIC-CERT in cyber-security spheres,” he said.

Another announcement from the AGM is the intention to have the OIC-CERT Cyber Drill 2013 in the first half of this year. The objective of this exercise is to assess the response capability of the members’ Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) and to familiarize members with the latest technology and trends in mitigating cyber threats.

For the training and capacity building initiative, five member countries -- Pakistan, Oman, Brunei, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates -- have offered their training facilities to develop national CERT capacity for member countries.

The OIC-CERT AGM 2012 was recently held concurrently with the OIC-CERT Annual Conference from Dec 29-31, 2012. This event was hosted by the Oman National Computer Emergency Readiness Team (OCERT), an initiative under the Information Telecommunications Authority of Oman (ITA), and jointly organized by CSM, drawing interest from 20 countries.

OIC-CERT was established in year 2009, to provide a platform for member countries to explore and to develop collaborative initiatives and possible partnerships in matters pertaining to cyber-security that shall strengthen their self reliance in cyberspace. OIC-CERT consists of 22 CERTs and cyber-security related agencies from 18 economies.

For more information about OIC-CERT, click here.

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