Cyber crime up, sophisticated, says Chia
19th October 2004 (Utusan Malaysia)

KUALA LUMPUR Oct 14 - Cyber crime is on the rise and getting more sophisticated, particularly involving Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, Deputy Minister of Internal Security Chia Kwang Chye said Thursday.

He said 117 cases involving RM451,000 in losses were taken to court under the Act between January and last month compared to 35 last year.

"This did not include cases not reported to the police," he told reporters at Parliament lobby.

Using the Internet or its network to send defamatory messages, making false allegations and discrediting someone are among the offences, he said.

Using communications account to avoid paying bills or unauthorised access to overcome the system, using counterfeit access device or known as "sniffer" to retrieve information from credit cards and automated teller machine cards are among other wrongdoings, he said.

Chia said 857 cases were charged in court under the Computer Crime Act 1997 last year, with losses totalling RM2.9 million, while 355 cases have been hauled up to court from January to last month.

Among the offences under the Act were hacking, computer virus and fraudulent withdrawals of cash using fake ATM cards, he said.

He said there were also cases that could be prosecuted under the Penal Code, especially cases of issuing threats that could harm public order.

Earlier, replying to the original question from Bernard S. Maraat (BN-Pensiangan) at the Dewan Rakyat, Chia said the Royal Malaysia Police had set up the Technology Crime Investigation Unit under the Commercial Crime Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department in Bukit Aman.

"Investigation officers in the unit are specially trained to investigate and take pro-active action on commercial crime cases involving computers, Internet or electronics as the medium of crime," he said.

He said the police have also established Forensic Computer Laboratory to assist investigating officers in computer crime cases.

"At national level, Malaysia, through the Royal Malaysia Police, is a permanent member in the Cyber Crime Information Network Systems headquartered in Tokyo," he said.

Through the system, the police could access the data base which had information on cyber crime and modus operandi of criminals besides latest information on trends of criminals, he added.

Bernard had asked the measures taken by the country to address the cyber crime issue.