Cyber crime a ticking bomb in Malaysia

Posted on August 29, 2013, Thursday

CYBERJAYA: Cyber crime is considered a ticking bomb as the Malaysian police recorded RM1 billion in losses from victims of such crime from January to July this year.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin said Malaysia was ranked sixth globally in terms of cyber crime threat risks by US-based IT security developer, Sophos, in its three-month Security Threat report this year.
“It (cyber crime) is serious and we must educate the public in preventing it,” he told a press conference after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Royal Malaysian Police and Limkokwing University, here, yesterday.
The MoU was signed by Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director, Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan, and Limkokwing University of Creative Technology senior vice-president, Datuk Raja Aznil Raja Hashim.
It provides the university with a five-year contract to provide contents such as posters, video clips and animations to the police in cyber crime-prevention campaigns.
Mohd Bakri said out of the RM1 billion in losses from cyber crime in the first six months of this year, 9,857 cases were reported with 7,801 of these solved and 3,385 people detained.
He said last year, the losses amounted to RM1.115 billion with 8,920 of the 11,543 reported cases solved and 3,712 people arrested.
Meanwhile, Syed Ismail said most of the cyber crime committed in the country were through parcel scams, selling goods via the Internet, and masquerading.
“Cyber crime in the country has yet to reach a level, where a syndicate would steal an information or intellectual property from a person or organisation and sell it to other parties or a rival for a price,” he said.
Therefore, Raja Aznil said the collaboration with the police in the campaign was vital to educate the public on the prevention measures so that they would not easily fall prey to cyber crime.
“This campaign mainly targets the young generation as they are tech-savy in using computers and mobile devices. They are also prone to be influenced by what is posted on the Internet, making them easy prey,” he said. — Bernama

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