CyberSecurity Malaysia Intensifies Fight Against Cybercrime
Bernama (27 APR 2011)

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) CyberSecurity Malaysia, the national cybersecurity specialist under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, has lined up five projects under the 10th Malaysia Plan to fight the growing cybercrime threat in the country.

It chief operating officer, Zahri Yunos, said that among them were Cyber999 and Trust Mark. Cyber999 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 was in implementation mode and expected to be launched soon, Zahri told reporters at the Counter e-Crimes Operations Summit V here Wednesday. "We're going to partner with the private sector on this programme, whereas they could have the Trust Mark logo on their websites as proof of its safeness," he said.

CyberSecurity, he said, was also realising 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," Zahri said.

Citing a report by KPMG, he said the cost of cybercrime in Malaysia, including electronic bank fraud and phishing scams, was estimated at RM2.73 billion in 2010. He said the number of cases reported to the Cyber999 Security Incident Help Centre was also increasing year-on-year, and this too was proof that
public awareness on the threat of cybercrime was growing.

In the first quarter of 2011, 3,563 incidents were reported to the Cyber999 Security Incident Help Centre and of those, 400 phishing sites targeting Malaysian banks were reported. "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," Zahri said.