5 projects to beef up cybersecurity
The Sun Daily (27 APR 2011) KUALA LUMPUR (April 27, 2011): CyberSecurity Malaysia, the national cybersecurity specialist under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti), has lined up five projects under the 10th Malaysia Plan to fight the growing cybercrime threat in the country. CyberSecurity chief operating officer Zahri Yunos said they include Cyber999 Security Incident Help Centre, Trust Mark, and a browser plug-in to detect fake banking sites. Calling it a growing menace, Zahri, citing a KPMG report, said the cost of cybercrime in Malaysia, including electronic bank fraud and phishing scams, was estimated at RM2.73 billion last year. He said that in the first quarter of this year alone, some 3,563 cases were reported to the Cyber999 Security Incident Help Centre. Of these, 400 were phishing sites targeting Malaysian banks, said Zahri at the Counter E-Crimes Operation Summit V today. "While the numbers are worrying, we are also happy to see members of the public notifying us when they come across fraudulent websites or emails," he said. CyberSecurity hopes the introduction and implementation of the new projects will help to curb cybercrime locally. Zahri explained that Cyber999, which is already in operation, is a public service that provides emergency response to computer security-related emergencies as well as assistance in handling incidents such as computer abuses, hack attempts and other information security breaches. The Trust Mark project, on the other hand, is in implementation mode and is expected to be launched soon, whereby websites can have the TrustMark logo as proof of security safety, Zahri said. He said CyberSecurity will also implement a browser plug-in called "DontPhishme" for internet users. Once installed, this security plug-in allows automatic detection of fake banking sites. "Users can download the browser plug-in from the official download repositories of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome," said Zahri. |
