This vast maritime domain has recently witnessed the emergence of non-state actors such as maritime terrorists and pirates carrying both political and socioeconomic objectives to take advantages from the sea. As one of the world’s busiest commercial shipping lanes, which becomes the main waterway between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Strait of Malacca has been the critical hot spot for any sea-based threats. A number of maritime terrorism and piracy attacks have been carried by, for instance, Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), who kidnapped, demanded ransoms, and even beheaded its hostages. Despite the conflation that maritime terrorism and piracy possess the overlapping characteristics, the authors believe that addressing the root causes of these two threats should be the priority of the national government where the non-state actors are based. Thus, based on a proposition that there has been rather too much emphasis on the need of regional security cooperations, the article will critically assess the inadequacy of the existing security measures and support the strengthening of national resilience to countermeasure the threats of maritime terrorism and piracy in the first place.