11/02/2023
DNB MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF MALAYSIA’S NATIONAL DATA THROUGH 5G IMPLEMENTATION
With the ongoing rollout of Malaysia’s 5G network in the country, growing concerns from the public now revolves around their consideration of having a second vendor for the 5G technology that involves a company with a notorious track record of security breaches through backdoor applications, made evidence in cases from around the world as to date. This questions DNB’s rationale of making this consideration in the first place, especially when the application using the existing technology has already created a secure and safe 5G network in Malaysia and by possibly appointing a second vendor creates an uncertain scenario of having a safe and secure network in the country.
Global security watchdogs have reported numerous occasions of rumoured Chinese company’s involvement in installing “backdoor applications”, which are unseen applications working in the background to collect important data and some giving unrestricted access into the network for the purpose of secret intelligence and espionage [1]. This worrying scenario, though has not shown any data stealing as to date, creates a very real threat of possibilities and avenues for foreign intervention through national data security, a possibility that Malaysia cannot afford to have with the new implementation of 5G in the country. These capabilities, as proven by United States officials, allows manufacturers to preserve the ability to access networks through these interfaces without the carriers' knowledge [2].
Can Malaysia afford to have these risks especially involving our national assets and database that can bring a lot of benefit for foreign organizations? As the national custodian for the 5G network in the country, DNB must take necessary steps to not bring such risks and take responsibility to ensure that our nation’s network is safe from being manip**ated against the country’s interest. By introducing a network provider that poses a real cybersecurity threat to the nation, it brings no benefit to the country by allowing Chinese’s technology into our national 5G network, especially with a very real possibility of their technology compromising the safety of our country. It would be extremely irresponsible for DNB to disregard this risk for the sake of unproven cost reduction in the rollout of 5G in Malaysia. DNB must consider case examples like Vodafone in the past, who have found severe proof of backdoor applications on Chinese technology in the UK [3] as well as similar case examples from D-Link, Cisco and even Sony that have reported the same problem as well with Chinese based technology [4]. Examples like this should show clear evidence that DNB should not even consider having such risk in the country and it is their responsibility to protect the sanctity of Malaysia’s network.
In short, DNB’s consideration creates unnecessary worry that our nation’s secrets and data can be compromised for the benefit of others. This growing concern will continue to hinder the progress of ensuring Malaysia’s progress in having a nationwide coverage of a reliable 5G network and in the end, puts Malaysia as the losing party to the benefit of having such technology in comparison especially to our neighbouring ASEAN countries. There are clear evidences that justify the actions of governments such as the United States and the United Kingdom in staying away from controversial technologies and we should not make the same costly mistake as they did in the past, before it is too late.