KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has enough rice to last at least six months and fish for eight months should a cyberattack disrupt the country’s communication networks, said Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu.
He said the government was prepared to distribute food supplies physically from farms if digital systems were disrupted.
Speaking at the 14th Malaysia Madani Scholars Forum today, Mohamad said the threat of cyber warfare was still at an early stage but was already real.
“The next war will be a cyber war. We must be mentally prepared for this,” he said.
He likened the threat to the Star Wars films of the 1970s.
“We saw it as imagination, an illusion. But now it is really starting to happen,” he said.
Mohamad asked the audience to imagine going a week without internet or television.
“We can sleep. But how would people order rice? Order fish? Order food supplies?” he said.
He said global power was no longer concentrated in the hands of a single party, with other players now capable of mounting cyber challenges against superpowers.
However, Mohamad assured the public that Malaysia was prepared for such disruptions.
“There is no need to panic, because we have enough rice stock for at least six months. We currently have enough fish for eight months and other food items are also available.
“But if there is a cyberattack and communications are cut, we are prepared through farms to send food supplies physically,” he said.
Mohamad stressed that preparations were necessary even if such an attack never materialised.
“But preparation must be there and we must start educating the people to face cyber warfare in the future,” he said.
He cited threats by an unnamed party to disrupt global supplies, including through cyber means, if its country came under attack again.
“If this happens, we will face the first Star War in the world,” he said.
Mohamad claimed Europe had been harder hit by cyber warfare than countries in this region, citing incidents in which large quantities of vegetables were discarded after disruptions to electricity supplies caused food to spoil.
He also referred to protests involving about a million people in Paris, saying inflation and food security were among their concerns.
“Food and security have become a global agenda. We can have nuclear weapons, we can have modern weapons, but if there is no food, imagine what happens to a country,” he said.
“So we must take cyber seriously and we hope it does not happen in Malaysia. That is our hope.”
Also on the panel were Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, SD Guthrie Bhd president and group chief executive officer Mohd Haris Mohd Arshad, and PNB Research Institute chief executive officer Dr Sarena Che Omar.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi reaffirmed that Malaysia had sufficient food supplies to last 6 months.
Media reports have said several countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Japan, had advised households to maintain emergency supplies for at least 3 days amid concerns over conflicts, extreme weather and disruptions to critical services.