Malaysia on Tuesday said that it will introduce more laws soon to tackle cyber intrusion, days after unidentified hackers attacked 198 websites, including government portals.

"We have to set up stronger cyber security measures and ensure that government websites are protected from such activities in the future, deputy information, communications and culture minister Joseph Salang Gandum said in Kuala Lumpur.

The measures include improving the government's encryption strategies by replacing older security applications such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and
Telnet with the Secure Shell (SSH) system.

He warned that hacking attempts directed at a nation might cripple its infrastructure and defence.

The hacking by a group calling itself "anonymous" came after the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) blocked 10 popular file-sharing websites.

The minister felt that the recent attack was actually a blessing in disguise as it now enabled the government to plug all the loopholes in the network.

He said the 198 websites that were hacked, including the 51 government sites, had partially or fully recovered.
With the number of internet users in the country exceeding 17 million and a broadband penetration rate of more than 58 per cent, he said there was a need to establish personal data protection laws.

He said the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) will be enforced early next year. .

"It will alter the way personal data is collected, processed, stored and transmitted between individuals and commercial organisations.
Joseph said the government had also made it mandatory for all organisations identified as key information infrastructure owners under the Critical National
Information Infrastructure (CNII) to be MS ISO/IEC 27001:2007 Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) certified.

The organisations are in the national defence and security, banking and finance, information and communications, and energy and transportation sectors.
Meanwhile, local artistes have supported MCMC's move to block access to file-sharing websites.

The Malaysian Artistes' Association (Karyawan) president Freddie Fernandez said the move was another step forward for protecting the rights of Malaysian artistes, who include musicians, composers, film makers and creative copyright owners.

"The action taken by the government should not be seen as censorship. rather it is to stop people from using the Internet to break the law," he said.
Fernandez said the "pirates" would always find ways to infiltrate the media and the industry, adding that the people should be made more aware of the problem faced by the entertainment industry.