CyberSecurity - pioneer in digital forensic
The Malaysian Reserve 23 (august 2013)

Little known to Malaysians is the fact that CyberSecurity, the national cyber security specialist agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), is a pioneer in regional digital forensics, a science of the future that will help Malaysia fight cyber crime, said the CEO of the organisation, Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab last week.

Amirudin said the digital forensic lab under the agency is the only one in existence in Malaysia and in South-East Asia, and has been certified as an international digital forensic lab with regional status that covers the entire Asia-Pacific region by the The American Society of Criminal Lab Directors (ASCLD).

"This means that evidence obtained and processed by the digital forensic lab at the CyberSecurity can be used as court evidence. This means we can testify in court since we have been given the court clearance thanks to the certification by ASCLD," Amirudin said in an exclusive interview with The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) at the agency's headquarters at The Mines recently.

With this credential, it is now possible for Malaysian experts in cybercrime to present evidence and to give their opinion in the country's courts.

This important step has been crossed in the digital forensic science in Malaysia but there are loopholes that will make immense possibilities to solve crimes, whether cyber or otherwise, more difficult. McAfee Inc, the US based anti-virus and Internet security provider estimates that the global cost of cybercrime is about US$1 trillion (RM3.31 trillion).

Amirudin told TMR that there are serious problems, acting as impediments, to the solving of crimes using digital technology in Malaysia and in using these internationally recognised standards, giving several reasons for it.

"The problem with CCTV's in Malaysia, in most places where they are installed, is that the videos from these cameras are either of very poor digital quality or a number of these cameras there are just used as a deterrent," Amrirudin said.

When a crime happens, we have difficulties to process the images and to identify the culprits.

The government has recommended that closed-circuit television's (CCTV) should be placed across the streets and buildings, but the other problem is we have people rushing for the cheapest and lowest quality," Amirudin explained.

Amirudin said the CyberSecurity's forensic division is in the process of proposing to the Malaysian government a certain standard that will be applied in the use of CCTV's in the country and that will be a standard that will make it easier for the forensic division to assist the authorities in real time, to depict the culprits in the video footage captured.

"We are giving some input to the government on the standard. The CCTVs are meant to capture the images that will allow the identification of the culprit in the event of a criminal activity. But nowadays, this is a tough call," Amirudin said.

Based on the organisation's experience with digital videos sent to the agency for identification of criminals, Amirudin said there is the need to upgrade the CCTVs.

He said the current lot of CCTV's installed in some places and buildings were of such poor quality that it defeated the purpose of having such a system around.

CyberSecurity is yet to propose to the government the new standards which, the CEO of the organisation said, will be based on the international standards.

He said that CyberSecurity had video, audio and digital capacities at their forensic lab, and this will be one of the major areas where the agency will be focused in the near future in order to help the country fight crime.

CyberSecurity Malaysia became an agency under the purview of MOSTI in 2005 as a national body to monitor aspects of National e-Security.