KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has good reason to fear the exponential rise of China’s 5G technology as it is capable of creating cyber and digital security threats to the country, said the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) chairman, Tun Daim Zainuddin, here today.
He said there were concerns that the technology would be abused by illegitimate parties to steal important information and encroach Malaysia’s ‘digital sovereignty’.
“I have discussed previously the issue of territorial sovereignty, but today, we face encroachment on ‘digital sovereignty’.
“While the speed of transmission and storage of information has greatly improved our daily lives, we need to stop and question the price we are paying for this convenience,” he said during the Perwira Dialogue.
He also questioned the security, defence, privacy and strategic implications of China’s leadership in this field as important information could be extracted from common everyday digital devices.
“This information is not just what we consciously post, as data on what we do, where we go, what we buy, and what we say can be extracted from common everyday devices,” he said.
Daim said China’s technological prowess and economic dominance, as seen in the ‘Made in China 2025’ blueprint for Chinese high-tech supremacy and their superior 5G technology, had drawn accusations from the United States of intellectual property theft and of using commercial technology companies to serve state interests.
At a press conference later, Daim said Malaysia had no plans to stop Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from operating in the country as the government was capable of assessing cyber and digital security threats.
This includes conducting tests on digital devices including those from Huawei, to ensure there is no cyber espionage threat involved.
Last Saturday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in London that Malaysia would study to find out the details of Huawei’s 5G infrastructure, amid growing fears of cyber espionage among the Western countries. – Bernama
