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Information technology is impacting all walks of life all over the world. ICT developments have
made possible a transition in information storage, processing, and dissemination, from paper to
virtual and from atoms to bits, which are now setting new standards of speed, efficiency, and
accuracy in human activities. Computerized databases are extensively used to store all sorts of
confidential data of political, social, economic or personal nature to support human activities and
bringing various benefits to the society (Frown, 1998).
However, the rapid development of ICT globally also has led to the growth of new forms
of national and transnational crimes. These crimes have virtually no boundaries and may affect
any country across the globe. Thus, there is a need for awareness, policy formation, and
enactment of necessary legislation in all countries for the prevention of computer related crime.
Globally, internet and computer-based commerce and communications cut across territorial
boundaries, thereby creating a new realm of human activities, and undermining the feasibility
and legitimacy of applying laws based on geographic boundaries. The new boundaries, which are
manifested in the monitor screens, firewalls, passwords, intruder detection, and virus busters,
have created new personalities, groups, organizations, and other new forms of social, economic,
and political groupings in the cyber world of bits. Traditional border-based law making and law
enforcing authorities find this new environment of cyber boundaries very challenging.
Cyber crimes is an obvious form of international crime that has been affected by the
global revolution in ICTs (Hughman, 2000). There are no correct definition of the term cyber
crimes because it evolving against time. They differ depending on the perception of both
observer/protector and victim, and are partly a function of computer-related crimes geographic
evolution. For example, The Council of Europes Cybercrime Treaty uses the term Cybercrime
to refer to offences ranging from criminal activity against data to content and copyright
infringement. However, Zeviar-Geese (1998) suggest that the definition is broader, including
activities such as fraud, unauthorized access, child pornography, and cyberstalking. The United
Nations Manual on the Prevention and Control of Computer Related Crime includes fraud,
forgery, and unauthorized access in its cybercrime definition.
CONTENTS
Classification Of Cyber Crimes
Cyber crimes can be classified in to four major categories as:
1.
2.
3.
4.
(vi) Logic Bomb : Its an event dependent programme , as soon as the designated event
occurs, it crashes the computer, release a virus or any other harmful possibilities.
(vii) Trojan Horse : An unauthorized program which functions from inside what seems to
be an authorized program, thereby concealing what it is actually doing.
(viii) Data diddling : This kind of an attack involves altering raw data just before it is
processed by a computer and then changing it back after the processing is completed.
Hackers have struck at government websites again, this time targeting the Social Security
Organization (Socso) by posting an image of a covered skull on its site at:
http://www.perkeso.gov.my
Sixty government websites have been hacked between February 1, 1999 and April 3 this
In the first six months of 2003, Malaysian NISER recorded 394 incidences of cybercrime as
shown in Table 1 below. 48.47 percent of the reported incidences were hack threats followed by
virus attacks at 28.68 percent.
In USA, more heavier cyber crimes cases reported. According to Computer Crime &
Intellectual Property Section from the United States Department of Justice, most of the cases are
done by profesional individually or by group and organization. The crimes that have been
reportedly are most consists of hacking personal data banking such as credit card fraud
information, ATM PIN and identity theft.
From January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009, the Internet Crime Complaint Center
(IC3) Web site received 336,655 complaint submissions. This was a 22.3% increase as compared
to 2008 when 275,284 complaints were received. Of the 336,655 complaints submitted to IC3,
146,663 were referred to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies around the country
for further consideration. The vast majority of referred cases contained elements of fraud and
involved a financial loss by the complainant. The total dollar loss from all referred cases was
$559.7 million with a median dollar loss of $575. This is up from $264.6 million in total reported
losses in 2008. Unreferred submissions generally involved complaints in which there was no
documented harm or loss (e.g., a complainant received a fraudulent solicitation email but did not
act upon it) or complaints where neither the complainant nor perpetrator resided within the
United States (i.e., there was not an appropriate domestic law enforcement agency for direct
referral).
Complaints received by IC3 cover many different fraud and non-fraud categories,
including auction fraud, non-delivery of merchandise, credit card fraud, computer intrusions,
spam/unsolicited email, and child pornography. All of these complaints are accessible to local,
state, and federal law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public
outreach and awareness efforts.
There are huge major differences of cyber crimes cases in Malaysia and in USA. In
Malaysia, the cyber crimes cases are not really the big deal or serious problems for MSC and
CyberSecurity Malaysia to handle. Most like e-mail scam, advance fee fraud and fake website
are always reported in Malaysia.
Futhermore in Malaysia, the specific law that governs the misuse of computer is the CCA
(Criminal Crime Act). Given the increase in computer related crimes and computer abuse, the
enactment of the CCA was timely to govern and regulate this cyberspace activity and impose
sanctions for criminal acts related to it. There was also a need for a specific legislation on
computer crimes as the Penal Code, a general statute catered for criminal offences obviously
being a 19th century piece of legislation, did not envisage for computer related crimes and are
inadequate to provide for these categories of offences.
Suggestions
Several studies conducted on how to fight against the cyber crimes. Some of the suggestions are
listed below:
Those agencies that are still lacking in such expertise can benefit greatly by working
together with other more technically sophisticated agencies and partnering with carefully
selected members of the IT community to get the training they need and develop a cyber-crimefighting plan for their jurisdictions. The Internet reaches into the most remote areas of the
country and the world. Cybercrime cannot remain only the province of law enforcement in big
cities; cybercriminals and their victims can be found in any jurisdiction.
How laws are made. This area includes how IT professionals can get involved at the
legislative level by testifying before committees, sharing their expertise, and making
opinions known to members of their governing bodies.
How crimes are prosecutes. This area includes how IT professionals can get involved
at the prosecution level as expert witness.
Computer crime awareness. An understanding of what is and isnt against the law, the
difference between criminal and civil law, penalty and enforcement issues.
Thus, in order to actively engage the IT world in the fight against cyber-crime, we face the
challenge of educating IT personnel in how cybercrime laws actually work to their benefit.
We wont be able to do this unless, we can show IT professionals that the laws themselves are
fair, that they are fairly enforced, and that they can be effectively enforced. One way IT
personnel can become more familiar with and more comfortable with the legal process is
though more exposure to it. Law enforcement personnel should actively solicit their help and
involve them as much as possible in the fight against cybercrime, giving IT professionals a
personal stake in the outcome.
CONCLUSION
Cyber crimes may take several forms including online fraud, theft and cyberterrorism. It
has been seen that amongst the major reasons that facilitate the perpetration of this crime is the
globalisation of technology and the revolutionary advancement of ICTs that have impacted on
criminal activity. Broadband, wireless technologies, mobile computing and remote access,
Internet applications and services, software and file transfer protocols are amongst the tools
utilized by cybercriminals to commit their crime.
By and large, it is submitted that cyber crimes should be subject to a global principle of
public policy that aims at combating and preventing this form of organized crime through raising
global awareness and increasing literacy rates, coordinating legislative efforts on national,
regional and global levels, and establishing a high level global network of cooperation between
national, regional, and international enforcement agencies and police forces.
(2615 WORDS)
REFERENCES
Frown, N. (2006). The Simple Economics of Cyber Crimes, Security & Privacy Magazine. In:
IEEE, vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 3339
http://www.cybersecurity.my/
http://www.ic3.gov/
http://www.niser.org.my/
Hughman, M. (2000), Policing Cyber Crime: Situating the Public Police in Networks of
Security in Cyberspace, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, vol 8,
no. 2.
Studycrime: Online resource guide to law and crime.retrieved from the web:
http://www.studycrime.com/ Crime/Crimeware.php (2005)
Zeviar-Geese (1998), The State of The Law on Cyberjurisdiction and Cybercrime On The
Internet.In: California Pacific School of Law, Gonzaga Journal of International Law, vol.
1 (19971998)