Online Crime Surge in Malaysia

Over 3,500 incidents of online crime were reported just in the first quarter of this year, The Star, a Malaysian daily, reported.

Last year's tally of reported cyber crimes stood at about 8,000 cases, said CyberSecurity Malaysia chief operating officer Zahri Yunos.

"The cases have increased exponentially," he said, pointing to the increase in Internet usage and broadband penetration as factors driving the spike. (Broadband penetration is currently at 55%)

More than a third (36%) of cases reported during the first quarter of 2011 involved online fraud, Zahri said. Phishing and identity theft are included in this category .

"Phishing sites targeting local banks have also increased, with 400 sites detected fir the first quarter of this year compared to 900 last year," he said.

Our advice? Ensure and check if websites are legitimate before submitting any personal information on or through them, A tell-tale sign of a fraudulent website is often an odd or fishy URL.

Also, ensure personal information posted on social networking sites are viewable only by people you trust.

Source: MsnNews, http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4804558

Comment:

The increasing in the online crime activities proved that internet can provide us a convenience platform to do many things but its security development is failed to protect the safety of internet user. Among the cybercrime cases, phishing and identity theft is the most common online fraud activities and the person who found involves in these activities could be charged under Computer Crimes Act 1997 Section 3(1)(a) if he causes a computer to intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer; Section 3(1)(b) the access he intend to secure is unauthorized; Section 3 (1)(c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that is the case. The person who found guilty under these sections is liable to up to RM 50,000 fine or 5 year imprisonment or to both. In my opinion, government should increase the punishments by imposed fine on identity theft activities based on the amount of value involved because RM 50,000 is nothing if the case involves more than million dollars.