CF Fong, who is the founder of security services firm LGMS, said among the most notable events was the revelation of the massive data breach, revealed in October.
The shocking leak, Fong said, saw more than 42 million mobile phone subscriber numbers and personal details leaked.
“This was considered the biggest breach in the history of Malaysian cyberspace.
“To make matters worse, the leak was believed to have occurred back in 2013, but only surfaced in October,” he told FMT.
Fong stated that the general Malaysian public was now starting to question the data custodians’ accountability on data privacy.
The massive data breach, believed to have affected almost the entire population, was first reported two months ago by lowyat.net, a local technology news website.
The website said it had received a tip-off that someone was trying to sell huge databases of personal information on its forums.
The breach was described as one of the largest leaks of customer data in Asia.
Another notable incident, Fong said, was the spread of the Ransomware pandemic, hitting every corner of the world, back in May.
Fong was referring to the “WannaCry” ransomware, which caused worldwide chaos for individuals, businesses and public bodies in May.
The virus encrypts data on infected computers before asking users to pay a “ransom” in order to receive a code that unencrypts or frees the data.
Wannacry, Fong said, was followed by other Ransomware attacks such as Petya and notPetya.
He noted that while such attacks were unwelcome, they had raised the awareness level among the public about the importance of patching (a computing act to improve or correct a routine or program).
The year 2017 also saw the exponential growth of Bitcoin prices in just 12 months, Fong said, rising from US$1,000 (RM4,070) in January and closing around US$16,000 this month.
He noted the hype over cryptocurrencies had given rise to many pyramid scheme operators in Malaysia offering Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).
“While Bitcoin prices are sky high, these pyramid operators are leveraging on the greed and confusion of the common layman to build their own ICO money games.
“The public are strongly advised to stay away from these ICOs initiated by multi-level marketing or direct-selling companies,” Fong said.
Fong expects Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to come out with “clearer and decisive mandatory statements” early 2018 on cryptocurrencies.
Locally, Fong said securities industry operators had also experienced a highly-coordinated denial of service (DoS) attack, followed by extortions back in July.
“These incidents teach us to be wiser and become more proactive to prepare ourselves for volumetric DoS attacks,” he said.
Next year, Fong expected to see more variants of ransomware attacks and more cryptocurrency-related scams and pyramid schemes.
He said the acceptance of Bitcoin, as well as other cryptocurrencies, would continue to expand.
“The public must stay safe and be proactive about cybersecurity,” he advised.
Minister: MCMC may have identified sources of massive data breach