Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU) has signed an MoU with Rocheston Pte Ltd, a US Based Cybersecurity Training Company, to set up the first Cyberthreats Intelligence Centre in Malaysia to be based within a University campus.

“The formation of this Cyberthreats Intelligence Centre represents a significant further development of APU’s existing state-of-the-art integrated Cybersecurity Talent Zone (CTZ) which was launched in 2018. This CTZ presently already comprises a NATO-standard Cyber Range and Security Operation Centre, APU’s CISCO Networking Academy, as well as centres for research and development for IoT and Digital Forensics” Quoted from the speech by the Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of APIIT Education Group, Datuk Parmjit Singh during the signing ceremony

“This Centre will act as the central hub for a network of Cyberthreats Intelligence Centres that will eventually be set up across Asia, and will promote openness in data sharing. Activities of the CIC will also be based on sound academic standards and principles. Many of the existing cyberthreats intelligence centres globally tend to impose heavy restrictions for data sharing and analysis”. Rocheston founder and CTO, Mr Haja highlighted in his opening presentation after the MoU signing ceremony

The Rocheston-APU Cyberthreats Intelligence Centre will aim to be more open and objective in its operations and information dissemination so that many parties – students, academics and industry – can benefit through enhanced preparedness in cybersecurity and cyber safety and increased networking supported by the best young talents.

The partnership between Rocheston Pte Ltd and Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) was established at an MOU Signing Ceremony, represented by Haja Mohideen, Founder & CTO of Rocheston Pte Ltd (left) and Datuk Parmjit Singh, CEO of APIIT Education Group (right).

The CIC also supports APU’s aspirations to encourage and support advanced cybersecurity research – particularly in the area of cyber threats intelligence, covering data collection, processing, analysis and dissemination. The outcomes of this analysis will be shared and published for the benefit of cybersecurity training, incident response, security operations, vulnerability management, risk analysis, fraud management and cybersecurity leadership.

This collaboration between APU and Rocheston held greater meaning due to the fact that Mr Haja himself is an illustrious alumnus of APIIT/APU, who has established himself as an internationally based cybersecurity specialist who is always focused on efforts to provide opportunities to students to develop hands-on industry-relevant skills in cybersecurity at an affordable cost.

With the signing of this MoU, APU will provide the necessary physical space and facilities for the establishment and operation of the Cyberthreats Intelligence Centre and Rocheston Ltd will provide the necessary expertise, applications, data and tools required to drive the Centre. This Centre will provide opportunities for students and researchers to have the first-hand experience in cyberthreats analysis, while researchers will be able to collaborate and make use of the data to forecast future attack trends and find improvements to mitigate complex cyber risks that may not be well understood previously.