He said reliance on foreign-owned technologies could leave critical infrastructure vulnerable if access to those systems became restricted.
“In the Malaysian context, I feel that we have to own the technology. We have to be able to continuously develop that technology and have control over where it resides.
“If certain countries impose embargoes on equipment or software, we could end up losing sovereignty over our data or even the ability to defend it,” he told FMT in an interview on the sidelines of the Defence Services Asia (DSA) and National Security Asia (Natsec) 2026 exhibition.
He said digital sovereignty meant being able to develop, maintain and manage technology locally, while retaining oversight of where data is stored and processed.
Shahril said this issue has become increasingly urgent as technology played a bigger role in combat.
“Technology has become a force multiplier in both attack and defence. Even a small country can be highly effective if it can command its own technology,” he said.
His remarks come as recent conflicts have highlighted how modern warfare is becoming more technology-driven across multiple domains, from cyber operations to the mass deployment of drones, against a backdrop of rising geopolitical fragmentation and uncertainty over access to critical technology.
PBS reported last month that Iran-linked hackers had stepped up activity during the West Asia conflict and were targeting US interests, raising fears of spillover cyberattacks beyond the immediate battlefield.
In Ukraine, the Associated Press has reported repeated Russian drone attacks on civilian areas and counteroffensives on its own drone factory.
These developments underscore how the war has become both a proving ground for large-scale drone combat and an example of how digital and physical systems can come under pressure at the same time.
Malaysia has not been immune to the wider rise in cyber threats. The Star reported in June that Malaysia recorded 195 data-breach incidents in the first quarter of 2025, up from 151 in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Against that backdrop, Sapura has been demonstrating its cyber capabilities at DSA Natsec 2026 through Velum Labs, its cybersecurity and intelligence arm.
Through Velum Labs, Sapura is showcasing “V-Dark”, a cyber intelligence platform that monitors threat activity and provides verified, actionable intelligence, and “V-Attack”, a cyber-attack emulation service that simulates real-world attacks to identify weak points and strengthen defences.
“V-Attack sits on an AI platform which, on top of giving a score for the likelihood of a breach, will also identify in a precise manner exactly where the attack is going to be and the subsequent actions to be taken in order to defend against such an initiative by the threat actors,” he said.
Shahril added that the emphasis was on being pre-emptive rather than waiting for a breach to happen, adding that cyber defence was increasingly moving away from reactive responses towards earlier detection and prediction.
He also said Malaysia has the talent needed to build such capabilities domestically, noting that many of the developers came from local universities and that the team behind the product is relatively young.
“We are not short of talent. It’s whether we can give them the challenge,” he said, adding that the average age of the team was 28.