Malaysia has become the first country in Southeast Asia and developing countries to be accepted as a Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) Authorising Participant member. Having joined a group of only 15 countries worldwide, Cybersecurity Malaysia can now issue Common Criteria (ISO15408) certificates on ICT products.

The Common Criteria evaluation provides an independent check and verification of ICT products security against a shared set of criteria. Products which satisfy this criteria and are awarded the ISO certification will be jointly recognised by the full 26 member countries of the CCRA.

“With this recognition, Malaysia has proven its capabilities to the world in the field of information security.” Said Dag Str?man, Chairman of Common Criteria Management Committee, “This would further bolster Malaysia’s competitiveness in quality assurance of information security based on the Common Criteria standard and build end-user confidence towards Malaysian information security solutions,”

The new Common Criteria authorising member status is expected to boost Malaysia’s already growing ICT security services industry, which is estimated to reach RM400 million (US$126 million) by the year 2014.