E-mail Users Warned Against Sending Junk, Hate Mail
13th October 2004 (Bernama)
BY M.Santhiran

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 (Bernama) -- Electronic mail (e -mail) users, especially youngsters, were warned that they must face the law if they misuse the facility to send junk and hate mail.

Federal Police CID Director, Datuk Musa Hassan, said his department's records showed that more users were misusing the facility and no longer relying on conventional means of sending poison-pen letters.

"We have to monitor this trend and take necessary action against this group to prevent them from using it for much more serious offences like the recent case involving singer Siti Nurhaliza," he said in an interview with Bernama.

Musa said people could not be stopped from using ICT facilities but they need to educate themselves to be responsible.

"Some youngsters might have the wrong impression that they can get away with their action but, in serious cases, we have all the expertise to track down senders of such mail before taking action against them," he added.

He said the Multimedia Act, Computer Crimes Act and Penal Code contain provisions which empower law enforcement agencies to take stern action against the culprits.

He stressed, however, that there was an urgent need to educate Internet users and youngsters to be responsible in using ICT technologies.

"If they use it correctly, then it is not a big problem but when they misuse it, then they should realise that their action can put others in all kinds of problems," he said.

He said his department did not have exact figures on the number of cases of people caught for misusing their e-mail but such cases were more rampant among users patronising cybercafes.

Musa said Bukit Aman had proposed to the Housing and Local Government Ministry to regulate cybercafe users so that law enforcement agencies can trace culprits involved in serious cases.

"Currently, at most cybercafes, no proper registration is being done which hampers our efforts to track down these culprits who normally do not use their PCs," he said.

National ICT Security and Emergency Response Centre (NISER) Director, Husin Jazri, said people who send nasty or hate mail, generally, do not use their own computers.

"This is probably because they are aware that there are technologies available to track down the senders through forensic examination on their PCs.

"That's why we like to remind PC users to ensure that there is no unauthorised usage of their personal computers, and parents should educate their children not to misuse it or they can end up in unnecessary trouble," he added.

Husin said there were more than three million Internet users in the country who need to be educated on good ethics of ICT technology usage.

"It's something like television where you can view it for the good material it contains but if you are not careful, then you or your children might show tendency to view unhealthy programmes," he added.

Husin said even though misuse of e-mail was not rampant in Malaysia compared with other countries, there was a trend that people were using it to send hate-mail.

"Some users might argue that they just send it to their friend but it can be forwarded to hundreds of others within minutes which can cause major havoc, just like what happened to the e-mail on alleged racial riots in Jalan Chow Kit a few years back," he added.

Husin suggested that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) look into the problem and find ways to regulate Internet users without affecting free access to the facilities which is guaranteed by the Malaysian government.