NEC has revealed it has been working with government agencies in Malaysia on cyber defence training scenarios that take a hands-on approach.

The two-day training scenarios in Cyberjaya brought together 20 representatives from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and Cyber Security Malaysia (CSM).

The training was also part of a project commissioned by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), which aims to be ‘hands-on pilot training aiming to increase cyber defence capabilities in ASEAN countries'.

NEC was responsible for organising the training, which provided simulations of client ICT infrastructures aimed at enhancing government system administrator abilities.

Those simulations enabled practical training, allowing system administrators to develop comprehensive cyber defence capabilities, NEC says.

"This project is another example of NEC's leading position in the field of cyber-crime prevention. In order to cope with increasingly complex and sophisticated cyber-attacks, it is critically important to cultivate experts who can analyze vulnerability across an organization and respond to cyber incidents quickly and appropriately,” comments Chong Kai Wooi, NEC Malaysia's managing director.        

In January, Japan's MIC and Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) signed a joint memorandum of understanding for cooperation in ICT.

NEC worked with the Embassy of Japan, situated in Malaysia, to provide the defence training for the two government agencies.  NEC says the training was similar to MIC's “Cyber Defence Exercise with Recurrence (CYDER)”, which was provided in Japan.

That program used a simulated government office network environment with a full cyber attack from onset to resolution. The training provided technical skills and organisational measures for stopping the damage from spreading, including possible staff instruction and information sharing with related institutions.