Kaspersky and Universiti Malaya ink MoU to further develop cybersecurity talent in Malaysia

30 October 2023

Both parties aim to establish long-term collaboration to foster cybersecurity educational projects in the country

Kaspersky and Universiti Malaya (UM), announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate with the common aim of developing cybersecurity capabilities in Malaysia.

The agreement involves knowledge exchange and mutual consultations between the two parties regarding the content of educational programmes and activities centred on raising cybersecurity awareness and cybersecurity talent in the country.

UM is the highest ranked university in Malaysia in the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2024. It has also recently launched its Masters of Cyber Security.

The partnership is part of Kaspersky’s active commitment to developing cybersecurity skills and knowledge worldwide. The global cybersecurity company has signed and has existing partnerships with various universities and academic institutions worldwide.

The Ministry of Communications and Digital Malaysia has highlighted earlier that Malaysia is short of experts in cybersecurity segments, with only 15,248 workers identified as cybersecurity experts in the country. In another study, done by Cybersecurity Malaysia, findings showed that the country needs 27,000 cybersecurity knowledge workers by the end of 2025.

“We are excited to partner with UM to further boost the quality of cybersecurity education and research in Malaysia. Our experts have continuously cautioned that cybercriminals and cyberthreats are getting more and more sophisticated, and especially targeted. Combatting these requires highly skilled security professionals, so we are really eager to work with UM to have more well-trained, local cybersecurity experts to help defend Malaysia’s ever-evolving digital economy,” says Adrian Hia, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky.

Commenting on the partnership, Professor Dato’ Ir. Dr. Mohd Hamdi Abd. Shukor, Vice-Chancellor of UM, “In today’s digital age, the significance of privacy and security cannot be overstated. Cybersecurity transcends the realm of just IT, especially in Malaysia where there’s a surging demand for experts to guard against cyber threats. Through our collaboration between UM and Kaspersky, I am confident that the Cybersecurity programme at UM will shape future cybersecurity leaders, highlighting the allure and importance of this profession.”

Find out more about Kaspersky’s academic partnerships and projects here: https://academy.kaspersky.com/news/.

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialised security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help 240,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

About the Universiti Malaya

UM is the country’s first university. Following the passing of the University of Malaya Act in 1961 by Parliament, UM was recognised as a public university. UM, as it is known today, was officially made a public university in the Federation of Malaya on 1 January 1962. UM is supported by two academies, thirteen faculties, three institutes and three academic centres that encompass medicine, science, technology, social sciences and humanities. The university also houses Malaysia’s first and biggest teaching hospital - UMMC. In addition, the Research Cluster had been formed to drive further breakthroughs in knowledge. The emphasis on research is strengthened by the presence of centres of excellence at several of its learning centres.

UM rises to 65th rank in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS-WUR) 2024, an improvement of 5 places from the previous year. UM is placed within the top 5% of the 1,503 institutions ranked by QS and remains the best of the 28 ranked Malaysian universities, and third in Southeast Asia.