When hackers targeted Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in a brazen cyberattack, demanding a US$10 million ransom, it wasn’t just a wake-up call for Malaysia’s aviation sector — it was a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities lurking in our critical infrastructure. As the government takes a firm stance against paying ransoms and calls for bolstering local cybersecurity capabilities, we speak to Adjunct Professor Murugason R. Thangaratnam, Co-Founder and CEO of Novem CS, to unpack what went wrong, how to prevent future breaches, and what this means for the nation’s digital security landscape.