There’s no denying the convenience of cloud storage tech, but as information gets more sensitive, there’s always the weighing of that convenience against the safety of said data. Where the government and public-sector data is concerned, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said that highly classified public-sector data is not allowed to be stored in cloud environments. At least, not in overseas cloud environments.
Responding to the question of how the government ensures that public and personal data processed by foreign cloud and AI providers remain under Malaysian control, Gobind said that confidential and restricted government data may only be stored in domestic private or hybrid cloud environments. Only open and non-sensitive data may be stored in overseas cloud environments.
Simultaneously, government data must be encrypted both at rest and in transit per the National Cryptography Policy. The encryption keys are also owned and controlled by the government to prevent foreign service providers from independently accessing the data, even if foreign authorities request it. These measures are intended to safeguard public-sector data processed by cloud service and AI tech providers, he said in a written parliamentary reply, according to The Edge.
Similarly, Gobind said that government AI procurement contracts do not allow providers to use government or public data to train their AI models. He said that this is a clause in all of the government’s AI procurement contracts. The data is not to be stored, and so must be deleted after processing.
FMT cites the minister as saying that “the guidelines on AI use in the public sector also makes it mandatory for all government agencies to minimise, conceal or anonymise data before processing them with AI systems”. He also says that the ministry is drafting an AI governance bill to ensure accountability when it comes to AI systems.
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