CYBER CRIMES IN MALAYSIA AND U.S.A: WHAT SHOULD WE DO IN MALAYSIA?

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 General Overview on the Issue Nowadays, with the most recent and sophisticated telecommunication technology devices, computers with internet accessible are made handy like the tablet, iPad and mobile phones. All of these updated gadgets enhance the reach to the cyber world. It is undeniable that internet facilitates us to accomplish more tasks in less travel and less time consuming besides the cheaper cost factor. Internet connection also provides us with various networks for information needs and wider socialization with foreign people with their diversified cultures from all the parts of the world. Life in cyber era is just like living in global community of borderless world.

Rapid developing in various modes of infrastructures enhance our country, Malaysia to experience accelerate Information Technology (IT) like other developed countries that have long established with the most sought after telecommunication advancement. Malaysians are not the drop out in the mainstreams of being the cyber citizens like any other parts of world populations that enjoy the access to the internet. Alongside this phenomenon is the increase in the cyber crimes as the cyber technology is could also easily manipulated to enhance bad intentions.

Despite all its advantages achieved in rapid time, cyber space is also a promising target for the criminals to victimize internet users with the activities profitable for them. The crimes done via internet are hard to be detected and to charge the cyber criminals with the lawsuits as they have disposable identity and not the specific ones to match with the real world citizens. The investigations and trials towards them are consuming much time and need the cyber expertise in tracking the sources of the criminals.

1.2 The Definition The Readers Digest Universal Dictionary (1988) defines crime as unlawful activity in general, any serious wrong doing or offence or an act committed in violation of a law forbidding for which punishment is imposed upon conviction.

In defining cybercrime, Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th edition) explains the term as criminal activities carried out by means of computers or the internet. The search engine on internet for the terminology meets us to this: The cyber crimes or computer crimes generally refer to any crime that involves a computer or a network as defined by www.enwikipedia.org/wiki/computer_crime .

According to Pavan Duggal, who is appointed as the consultant and the president of www.cyberlaws.net beside his role as a Supreme Court advocate and the cyber law expert, cyber crime is Any criminal activity that uses a computer either as an instrumentality, target or a means for perpetuating further crimes comes within the ambit of cyber crime.

1.3 The Scope The cyber crimes include the wide varieties of activities that harm or attacking the computers or the networks or even the internet users. They are the criminal activities committed on the internet which in the broad term describes every negative activity from electronic cracking to denial of service attacks that cause electronic commerce sites to lose money and could also leave the traumatic effects to the internet consumers who have been victimized while using internet facility.

2.0 CONTENT This section is to present the classification of cyber crimes, the comparisons of these crimes that occur in our country Malaysia and in the United States of America and lastly to give some suggestions on ways how to curb the crimes.

2.1 CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER CRIMES Crimes usually done in cyber world are in vast varieties as the criminals are those who are computer savvy. They know exactly on how to intrude into the system and reach out for their targets whether the system, the computers, the netizens in general or the specifically persons. Sometimes there are overlapping in defining the category of cyber crimes. Basically there are five of them:

2.1.1 Financial Those who disrupt business ability and conduct e-commerce are cyber criminals. The examples of financial involvement via cyber space are those who disguising as the very important people like so called Dato or Tan Sri or the authorities such as the bank or custom officers claiming that the call receiver needs to bank in several amount of money for a project or credit cards used. Lately, many foreign criminals collaborate with the locals who disguise as the custom officers calling internet users to clear the tax for parcels or expensive presents stranded at the airport.

There are many cases of the internet users who are in financial desperate seeking for financial loans or investment opportunities online fall prey to scammers advertisements. They are asked to fill in online form with important particular details and bank in several amount of processing fee but after the transactions done the advertisers could not be contacted anymore. Many had suffered this kind of financial loses. Metro Ahad, (www.harianmetro.com.my) in its 31st July 2011 issue by Shamran Sarahan and Nurul Husna Mahmud released the statistics gained from Cyber and Multimedia Crimes Unit of Crime Investigation Department in Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur that there were about 6,238 reported online cheating cases involving RM65.2 millions all
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throughout 2010. It has been an increment by four folds compared to four recent consecutive years starting from 2007 with only about 1,143 cases and RM14.9 millions lost. The increment in the cases is very alarming with the increase of internet access and online consumers factors.

2.1.2 Hacking It is an act of gaining unauthorized access to a computer system or network and further making an unauthorized use of this access. Some other kinds or categories of cyber crimes could be committed through the platform of the hacking activity.

A hacker first starts on an easy target and uses it to hide his or her own traces for launching attacks from more secure sites. The goal of an attack is to gain complete control of the system. So, the hacker can edit, delete, install or execute any file in any users directory often by gaining access to a super-user account. This will allow both maximum access and the ability to hide the intruders presence.

Recently, the cases of cyber bullies are being the hot topic discussed by the parents in Malaysia whom their children are exposed to such threats when online especially on social websites like the Facebook. The bullies hack the into the victims accounts and disguise as the nominee of that particular site and act as if the account owner writes insensible things, posts unsuitable page contents or threat others through his or her accounts. It seems that the criminals could detect the account owner password to intrude into their sites as reported in Mega Fokus, Utusan Malaysia, (www.utusanmalaysia.com) on its 20th October 2011 as issued by Sholina Osman.

2.1.3 Piracy This is the act of copying the products of copyrighted materials like the intellectual property or art works produced by others like songs, films or books. The internet and personal computers are latest medium that could offer new dimension in the old crime deeds.

Piracy and online theft are activities coherently done that involving of the internet usage in distributing the creative work protected by copyright. The theft of software through the illegal copying of genuine programmes or the counterfeiting and distribution of products intended to pass for the original. This type of crime had caused ever increasing losses in retail revenue each year. Hacking can be done in various ways such as end user copying, hard disk loading, counterfeiting, illegal downloads from the internet and so on.

2.1.4 Cyber terrorism The acts of hacking are designed to cause the impacts of terrorism. Cyber or e-terrorism is termed as such that the consequences of computer hacking is with the purpose to cause violence against persons or property or at least in causing sufficient harm to generate fear.

Cyber terrorism is different from other types of cyber or commercial crimes or incidents of hacking by its severity feature. Professor Dorothy Denning from Georgetown University proposes that the attacks which disrupt non essential services or that are mainly a costly nuisance are not classified as cyber terrorist attacks. By using the internet, the terrorist can affect much wider damage or change to a country than one could by murdering its citizens. The examples of cyber terrorism are such as disabling a countrys military defense to hut off the power in a large area, the terrorist can affect more people at less risk compared to using any other modes.

One of the popular forms of cyber terrorism is to threaten a large bank. The terrorists hack into the system and then leave an encrypted message to the board of directors in threatening the bank to pay a set amount of money or else to suffer the destroy of bank files in whatever ways of attacks for instance from logic bombs to electromagnetic pulses and high emission radio frequency guns.

Such threats are the obvious examples of cyber terrorism by which the doers gain so much profit and could not easily detected as they might be doing the attacks from abroad.

The victimized bank would also choose to pay rather than getting the bad reputation of
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unsecured bank or undergone the prolong investigation process that might paralyze its operation.

2.1.5 Online pornography Processing, possessing or distributing pornography in child or adults by forces is made easier and faster in cyber age via cyber space. The criminals doing these threats are victimize others and causing prolong great traumatic effects. Childrens exposure to pornography while online has become a political topic with various family oriented groups seeking assistance to prevent childrens access to such sites. It is proven that viewing pornography websites rooted to too many social problems.

Often the female teenagers or children below 12 are tried to be lured in cyber stalking and into a relationship in social websites and asked for a date meeting. Then the girl falls prey in gang rapes and not just that her undressed pictures uploaded on internet. This crime done to her left the traumatic effects all the rest of her life. Since the explosion of public interest in internet pornography in 1990s, the public, lawmakers and the courts have argued over how to control online pornography. The chief concern over this child pornography as the cyber crime is that the internet allows minors easy access to it through search engines and mostly even accidentally. Also of worry is the Internet's ability to facilitate the illegal dissemination of child pornography.

2.2 COMPARISON OF CYBER CRIMES IN MALAYSIA AND U.S.A

2.2.1 The cases of cyber crimes in Malaysia According to Superintendant Victor Sanjos the Chief of Cyber Security Unit, Cyber and Multimedia Commercial Crime Investigation Department in Bukit Aman, The cyber crime is very serious and involving the trials to get the consumers personal details like their names, account numbers, PINs and credit card details. This is done by disguising as the entities like bank or police officers. The most common form of cyber crimes in Malaysia is internet banking, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and e-commerce.
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If we tend to rely conservatively on newspaper report, we might consider that snatch theft or corruption is the most prevalent in Malaysia. However, closes scrutinize reveals that financial and cyber crimes are the most cyber crimes committed in Malaysia. Bernama

(www.beritanasionalmalaysia.com) quoted Mr Tommy Seah, the Honorary Group Chairperson of the International Cybercrime and Forensics Examiner Group of Companies as saying that the most widespread of financial crimes in Malaysia were financial statement frauds, procurement frauds and misappropriate of assets.

According to the Chief Executive officer of Cyber Security Malaysia, Lieutenant-Colonel Husin Jazri, there were more than 4, 000 cyber complaints mostly concerning cyber crimes have been lodged to Cyber Security, Malaysia within the past two years and mostly consisted of hack threats, fraud, denial of services and other computer problems such as files lost or corrupted by viruses. He added that the agencys services catered for individuals as well as companies who faced computer related problems.

The most common complaint cases of cyber crimes in Malaysia are the fake parcel delivery in which the senders collaborate with locals to disguise as the custom, immigration or bank officers in claiming several amount of money in the form of tax or to bribe the officers to release the stranded parcels if the crimes done by foreigners. The local cyber disguises may claimed to be as the very important persons (VIPs) such as the prominent Dato or Tan Sri who run the most flourished business or investment scheme and invite the cyber users to be financially benefitted while online. In fact, they are scammers who are cyber savvy and victimized those who are not well equipped with knowledge and precaution measures to be in the cyber world.

Recently, there are cyber bully cases reported to be done towards children and teenagers. The criminals hacked these youngsters social websites like Facebook or Twitter by intruding into them and act out as the owners of those accounts. It seems that the doers can detect the passwords and use the others account as the safer sites to launch the cyber crime attacks to their real targets.
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2.2.2 The cases of cyber crimes in USA The United States of America which has been long ago flourished with the cyber technology confronts to too many new forms of old crimes like cyber stalking, identity theft, child pornography, fraud and scams, copyright violations, hacking as well as creating malicious code. In a 2003 survey conducted by the CSI with the participation of the San Francisco Federal Bureau of Investigations Computer Intrusion Squad, out of the 530 respondents made up of U.S. corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, medical institutions and universities, 56% reported unauthorized use of their computer systems.

The total financial loss amongst 251 respondents who chose to report it was $201,797,340. Of that amount the greatest portion, $70,195,900, was lost due to theft of proprietary information, the next biggest portion, $65,643,300, was lost due to denial of service attacks. The two highest methods of attack or misuse reported were virus incidents, 82%, and insider abuse of network connections, 80%. It can be seen from the above statistics that internet is still very much a lawless place for the criminals to do their bad activities quite freely. (www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/legal/federal-computer-crime-laws_1446)

2.3 SUGGESTIONS TO CURB CYBER CRIMES There are various precaution steps could be taken to avoid or to curb the cyber crimes and to be victimized while online. They are for instance to:

1. Turn on the spam blocker As most of the internet providers supply us with a spam blocking feature, use it wisely to prevent unwanted messages like fraudulent and phising e mails from getting to our inbox.

2. Install anti virus software Ensure that we install an adequate anti virus software for our computer such as McAfee, Norton, Kaspersky or so on. We also need to regularly update them. It is better to scan in
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locating and eliminating any malware, spyware, viruses and other problems. AVG offers free versions security software if we are unable to purchase others.

3. Tune on to Firewall protection feature The programme is a digitally created barrier that could prevent hackers from getting into the computer system. We should always keep it turned on.

4. Utilize encryption software It is crucial to encrypt our important data. The utilization of encryption software will protect our data from being hacked by those who try to enter our computer system.

5. Be cautious in providing personal information We should be wary in providing our personal information into the websites which are we do not know about them and could not verify their owners. We should never fill in whatever so called online form with our name, mailing address, bank account number or social security number.

6. Do online shopping on secure websites Online shopping could only be done on a secure websites. They must have at least a proper URL that begins with https or a trustee seal. Without these, we may risk ourselves of submitting the credit card or other personal information to a site that may be a fraud.

7. Avoid from believing common scams We should never be taken in by common scams like foreign lotteries, phony sweepstakes or similar methods that sounds too good to believe. These scams are usually used by cyber criminals to get the personal information and money from internet banking consumers.
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8. Monitor the childrens online activities It is wise and advisable to use parental control software that could limit the types of sites the users (our kids) can gain access to. The youngsters should only have access to a computer located in a central area of our home. The parents or guardians should be responsible by regularly checking all browsers and e mail activities to ensure that they do not fall prey to scammers.

9. Be strict not to allow computer sharing We should never allow strangers or unfamiliar ones to use our personal computer. If there are indications that we or our family members have been the victim of a cyber crime we should contact the National Consumer Complaints Centre (www.nccc.org.my) in Malaysia to lodge the report or at www.cybersecurity .

3.0 CONCLUSION To conclude, the cyber facilities are crucial for us these days that by utilizing the cyber technology the tasks of information searching and other commercial or administrative work could be managed easier and in no time. The online facilities are also taken as the good ways and sources for the criminals to be profitable from the cyber users as they are hard to be detected.

So, it is our roles as the cyber community to know the forms of threats could be faced in cyber space. We should be ready with the precaution steps in facing the crimes or in avoiding them. Our youngsters should be protected from being victimized by giving them guidelines and monitoring to curb them from falling prey to immoral and threatening websites. (2,997 words)

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4.0 REFERENCES

4.1.0 Books 4.1.1 Prof Dr Mohd Alias Yatim. Prof Hazidi Abdul Hamid. Mohd. Helmi Abdul Rahim. The Module. OUMH1203. English for Written Communication. (2010). Open University Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur.

4.2.0 Magazines/Newspapers 4. 2.1 Shamran Sarahan. Nurul Husna Mahmud. Rugi RM65j kerana jenayah siber. Informasi Erektif (ie). Metro Ahad. Ahad 31 Julai 2011. 4.2.2 Sholina Osman. Mangsa dibuli di laman social. Mega Fokus. Utusan Malaysia. Khamis 20 Oktober 2011.

4.3.0 Websites 4.3.1 www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/perezSent.pdf 4.3.2 www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/m.jangosSent.pdf 4.3.3 Tips for Avoiding Computer Crimes www.rbs2.com/cvict.htm 4.3.4 www.naavi.org/pati/pati_cybercrimes_dec03.htm 4.3.5 www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/cjcc/pdf/computer_crime_study.pdf 4.3.6 www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/calculating-the-true-cost-of-cybercrime/4438 4.3.7 Ronald B. Standler http://www.rbs2.com/ccrime.htm 4.3.8 Stacey Henley www.ehow.com/list_5894280-ways-combat-cyber-crime.html 4.3.9 www.cybersecurity.org.my

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