Two threats an hour online
The Star (21 Sept 2011)

KUALA LUMPUR:Two incidents of online threats are reported to CyberSecurity Malaysia every hour, with 10,406 cases recorded during the first eight months of this year alone.

Its CEO Lt Col (rtd) Prof Datuk Husin Jazri said online fraud was the biggest cyber security issue in the country, representing 36%of all cases reported.

"The number of reports on cyber security incidents that we received has doubled since last year.

"The threat is very real and has to be taken more seriously," he said during a media briefing here yesterday.

Husin said CyberSecurity had also, through its Cyber Early Warning System (CEWS), detected 5.2 million threats online during the same period this year.

"The threats detected by CEWS include spam e-mails containing viruses, botnet drones and malware infections," he said.

CyberSecurity, which is the national cyber security specialist centre under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, said the country was not aggressive enough in its efforts to tackle cyber crime.

"If we do not work together to implement preventive measures instead of just reacting to these crimes, the number of cases will also double next year," he said, adding that education and awareness were the keys to fighting cyber crime.

He said relying solely on law enforcement and other reactive measures was too slow as new threats were emerging every day.

Security expert Norton by Symantec, in its Cybercrime Report 2011, said Internet users throughout the world had lost US$114bil (RM355.6bil) to online scams over the past 12 months.

It also showed that more than a million cyber crimes were committed daily with 14 people falling prey to online crimes each second.

It was reported that 12,990 cybercrime cases had been reported to police over the past four years in Malaysia, with losses amounting to RM109.6mil.