By: Retave’s Technology Desk Editor
On 7 October 2026, Malaysia’s National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) launched the My Cyber Hero Portal at the CyberDSA 2026 defence and security conference. It’s an interactive cybersecurity learning platform for students across the country. Micro Concept Tech developed it with NACSA, the BlackBerry Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, and Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU).
NACSA chief executive Ir Dr Megat Zuhairy Megat Tajuddin said an understanding of cybersecurity should start early, and that keeping systems safe is everyone’s responsibility. He also said Malaysian experts “should be part of the leadership” in the field, a role today’s students could one day grow into.
The portal covers the classroom end. The job ends sit on TalentCorp’s Malaysia Critical Occupations List, and cybersecurity has a seat of its own.
A seat among the digital roles
MyCOL is TalentCorp’s guide to the occupations Malaysian employers find hard to staff, and its 2024/2025 edition lists 66 of them.
Cyber Security Professionals made the cut. By the grouping RETAVE’S TVET Desk uses (TalentCorp itself presents the 66 as a single numbered list), it counts as one of nine digital and information technology roles.
Data Professionals work with much of the same information. Computer Network Professionals and Information Technology System Administrators run the systems that cybersecurity specialists protect; our companion piece, “Wanted since 2015: the two tech roles on every edition of Malaysia’s critical jobs list”, follows the administrators’ decade on the list.
A cue for campuses
A place on MyCOL tells you that employers find the role hard to fill today, drawing on labour-market statistics and surveys of the firms doing the hiring.
TalentCorp says the list helps shape new academic programmes and training routes. For a university or polytechnic weighing a new cybersecurity course, the listing is a solid place to start.
From 16,765 towards 28,000
A 2023 study by CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM), the national cybersecurity specialist agency, with the Department of Skills Development and the Centre for Instructor and Advanced Skill Training, projected demand for 28,068 cybersecurity personnel in 2026. The latest published count, given by Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo in September 2024, was 16,765 as of July 2024. That leaves room for thousands more specialists to join the field.
Training is growing to match. CSM is turning its existing professional development programme into the Malaysia Cyber Security Academy, with a focus on technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Minister Gobind said the academy “will develop world-class TVET cyber security talents.”
Students are already showing what they can do. At CyberDSA 2025, the same conference a year earlier, APU’s cybersecurity undergraduates took third, sixth, and seventh places among 75 teams in the Siber Siaga Capture the Flag: Code Combat competition. For the first time, APU undergraduates also created and set the competition’s challenges. Assoc Prof Dr Thang Ka Fei, APU’s Senior Head of School, said the result “reflects the outstanding synergy between our students and staff.”
A Tier 1 starting point
Malaysia starts from a strong position. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for digital technologies, placed Malaysia in Tier 1, its top “role-modelling” group, in the Global Cybersecurity Index 2024. Forty-six countries made that tier, among them several of Malaysia’s Asia-Pacific neighbours.
The Budget 2027 speech adds another marker. It notes that Malaysia is now recognised at Tier 1, the highest level, for readiness to move to post-quantum cryptography, encryption designed to withstand attacks from future quantum computers. NACSA and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will develop home-grown data protection technologies to meet that future.
Heroes beyond the operations centre
For the students logging on to the My Cyber Hero Portal this term, MyCOL’s message is a welcome one. Employers are looking for cybersecurity professionals, and the path into the field can start at school. As Ir Dr Megat Zuhairy put it at the launch: “A cyber hero is not only the expert in a security operations centre.”
Further Reading
- Wanted since 2015: the two tech roles on every edition of Malaysia’s critical jobs list
- The 66-occupation list, decoded: what the Malaysia Critical Occupations List (MyCOL) 2024/2025 names, group by group
- Budget 2027 adds 100,000 free AI subscriptions for young Malaysians, ChatGPT included
Sources
- Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation. (2025, November 3). APU cybersecurity students lead the charge at Siber Siaga Capture the Flag: Code Combat 2025. https://apu.edu.my/node/2751
- International Telecommunication Union. (2024). Global cybersecurity index 2024 (5th ed.). https://www.itu.int/epublications/publication/global-cybersecurity-index-2024
- Ministry of Finance Malaysia. (2026). Budget 2027 speech [English translation of the speech by Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on 9 October 2026]. https://belanjawan.mof.gov.my/pdf/belanjawan2027/ucapan/bs27.pdf
- The Star. (2026, October 7). Budget 2027: NACSA hopes for more funding to boost local cybersecurity talent, solutions. https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/10/07/budget-2027-nacsa-hopes-for-more-funding-to-boost-local-cybersecurity-talent-solutions
- TalentCorp Malaysia. (n.d.). MyMahir Malaysia Critical Occupations List (MyCOL) 2024/2025 [Brochure]. https://www.talentcorp.com.my/images/uploads/publication/205/MyMahir-MyCOL-20242025-Brochure-1773377416.pdf
- Twentytwo13. (2024, September 27). Malaysia Cyber Security Academy to begin operations in 2025. https://twentytwo13.my/malaysia-cyber-security-academy-to-begin-operations-in-2025/
