In early 2025, Malaysia witnessed a dramatic 78% increase in ransomware incidents in just the last quarter of 2024. While the cyberattacks themselves may seem like distant crimes carried out in the shadows of the internet, their impacts are increasingly felt by businesses, public institutions, and even everyday citizens across the country.

“This isn’t just a Malaysia problem—it’s a global threat,” said Minister of Digital Gobind Singh Deo at the launch of the Cyber Defence and Security Conference 2025 in Kuala Lumpur. “That’s why as ASEAN Chair this year, Malaysia is placing cybersecurity cooperation at the top of our regional agenda.”

According to data from the National Cyber Security Agency, ransomware incidents jumped dramatically late last year, reflecting the growing scale and complexity of digital attacks across borders.As Malaysia assumes the 2025 ASEAN chairmanship, Gobind Singh has elevated cybersecurity and cybercrime to the top of the regional agenda, pledging to drive policies and initiatives that strengthen the ASEAN cyber ecosystem.

At first glance, these attacks may seem far removed from daily life. But for individuals like Luo Qinyuan , a systems administrator at a Southwest University in Chongqing, the effects are all too real.

“We were locked out of our email server for almost 18 hours because of a ransomware intrusion attempt,” he said. “Luckily, we had backups and protocols in place. But it's a sobering reminder of how fragile our digital infrastructure is.

Wang Zhihao, a third-year Communication student at UKM, shared that while he had not encountered ransomware personally, his uncle’s print shop was attacked last year. “One day, all his customer and billing files were suddenly encrypted, and the computer just showed a red warning message,” he recalled. The family was confused and panicked—his uncle initially thought it was a technical glitch. “What hurt him most was losing some clients' data forever.”

He admitted the recent spike in cases made him uneasy. “I used to think hacking only happened to big companies, but now I see it can hit ordinary people like my uncle. Small business owners aren’t equipped to deal with this.”

Wang Feiyi, a classmate of Wang Zhihao, a communication student at UKM, recalled an incident that happened on campus. “Last semester, one of our group project files suddenly got locked—we could not open it, and a strange message popped up asking for payment in Bitcoin,” he said. “At first, we thought it was a prank or a virus, but the IT department later confirmed it was a basic form of ransomware.”

Although the file wasn’t very sensitive, he said the experience was unsettling. “It made me realize how easy it is to be targeted—even as students. We always think we’re too small to matter, but clearly, attackers don’t care who you are.”

So the question is: In a world increasingly driven by digital threats, what role do communicators like us play?

Writing this article on cybersecurity made me realize how something that once felt distant and technical—like ransomware attacks—can actually have a direct impact on our daily lives. As a media and communication student, I used to think that cybersecurity was only relevant to IT professionals or government agencies. But through this experience, I saw how ordinary people, even students like myself, are becoming increasingly vulnerable in the digital world. What surprised me the most was how a highly technical topic could come to life through real stories and personal experiences. This taught me that our role as future media practitioners isn’t just to report facts, but to make complex issues understandable and relatable to the public. 

Especially in today’s era of information overload and digital misinformation, the ability to translate technical content into human-centered narratives is more important than ever. I also realized that many of today’s challenges, like cybercrime, don’t stop at national borders. As Malaysia takes on the ASEAN chairmanship this year, it reminded me of the importance of looking beyond local stories and developing a regional perspective in our reporting. Overall, this experience encouraged me to approach journalism not just as a way to inform, but as a tool to empower people—by helping them understand, prepare for, and take action in the face of global issues that affect us all.