Educate young on cyber traps
The Star (17 Feb 2012)

MALAYSIA saw a surge in cyber crime last year with over 15,000 reports lodged. According to Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili, 15,218 cyber crime incidents were reported via the Cyber 999 Help Centre, an 88% increase compared with 2010 when only 8,095 incidents were reported.

There was a 127% increase in the number of such crimes in 2010 where 8,090 cases were reported, compared with 3,564 cases in 2009.

Most of the cases reported were connected with character assassination and cheating.

The Cyber 999 Help Centre received numerous cases of those duped by "get rich" scams, pornography, etc.

There have been several cases of cheating through the Internet where some victims lost all their hard-earned savings. Cyber criminals take advantage of human weaknesses and strike mercilessly.

Interpol estimated that the losses resulting from cyber crime are larger than the global black market for marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined. Clearly, the increasing spate of cyber crimes not only in Malaysia but also worldwide calls for harnessing the latest technology to combat cyber crime.

The Internet and the computer are the most common tools that we use in our daily life. Their uses have expanded over the years.

When the computer was invented, no one thought that it would become a means of committing crime. Day by day, cyber criminals are getting smarter and finding new ways to commit crimes as well as to escape arrest.

Cyber crime is the latest and the most complicated problem in cyberspace at the moment.

Some common forms of cyber crime are identity theft, cyberstalking, phishing, child pornography, spam, and cyber-terrorism. It can also involve illegal access to a company’s information.

Also rampant are financial crime, online gambling, sale of illegal articles, intellectual property crime, forgery, e-mail spoofing and cyber defamation.

Though it is nearly impossible to eliminate cyber crime, it is possible to keep them under check. In order to prevent and overcome cyber crime, one should be very careful when using the computer and especially when on the Internet.

In realising the danger that cyber crimes pose, Malaysia introduced the National Cyber Security Policy which was implemented in 2006. The policy needs to be reviewed and updated to effectively deal with cyber crime.

More educational and informative materials need to be made available to the public to make them aware of the different types of cyber crimes and the protection technologies that are available.

The Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) calls for greater effort to strengthen the moral fibre and reinforce the resilience of the young generation so that in this ICT age, they will not be involved in cyber crime.

As the days go by, it is all the more essential to protect our younger generation from the negative influences of information technology.

With the ICT Age and smart learning environment, acquiring knowledge and information through computers must be done with adequate moral education.

If this is not done, the information obtained could be misused to the detriment of our younger generation.

Previously, students obtained information through their teachers or textbooks but now they have access to such information through the Internet and CD-ROMs.

This poses a major challenge to the teachers who will have to guide students on ways to access information, evaluate it and derive conclusions from the information received.

With the advent of borderless information, more stress must be given to the inculcation of moral values in education to prevent the emergence of more computer criminals.

While we need to produce ICT-savvy and smart workers to ensure the success of the Multimedia Super Corridor, this should be achieved without sacrificing or ignoring the need to inculcate good moral values.

TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE

Vice Chairman, MCPF.