M'SIAN UNIVERSITIES SHOULD LEARN TO CHECK CYBER TERRORISM ACTIVITIES AMONG STUDENTS - SECURITY EXPERT

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, June 29 (Bernama) – Malaysian universities can avoid becoming
breeding grounds for extremist groups if their top officials and security
personnel are trained to detect terrorism activities perpetuated via the
Internet, a security consultancy firm said Monday.

Joshua Kwai, director and principal consultant of ICFE Homefront Security
Consultancy (IHSC), said it was not easy to notice something not really obvious
without a trained eye.

He was referring to recent revelations by the Malaysian authorities about
militant operatives from extremist groups, such as Jemaah Islamiah, using
the public universities to recruit international students as their new members.

It was reported that a number of lecturers from these universities had also
been implicated in the spread of extremist ideas.

In an interview with Bernama here, Kwai said the institutions of higher
learning could take a proactive role in facing this new menace or challenge by
equipping their top management, security and safety personnel with knowledge on
counter terrorism measures.

They could also get external help, especially from the security consultancy
firms to relook into or revise their security policies or standard operating
procedures to mitigate the emerging threats or prevailing security breaches, he
said.

According to Malaysia's Deputy Inspector-General of Police Ismail
Omar, new generations of criminals could create mayhem from halfway round the
globe because of increased globalisation and via the Internet.

IHSC is a business division of the ICFE (International Cybercrime and
Forensics Examiners) Group of Companies that deals with fraud risk management,
investigation and prevention, with offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

This business division provides a comprehensive range of security services
from consultancy, training, and technology solutions to business resilience
consultancy; helping businesses to continue their daily operations during crisis
or disasters. This business division also serves both Singapore and
international clients.

Its services cover almost all aspects of industry such as aviation, maritime
and land security, and under the training portfolio of this business division,
it also provides specialised training such as profiling, counter robbery and
anti-terrorism training.

Kwai said IHSC had all the important services needed to guide, assist and
prepare any parties, especially the universities, to face any clandestine
activities or criminal acts that could pose threats not only to their entities
but also to the country.

Asked how IHSC could stop criminal acts when even the existing authorities
had not fully succeeded in tackling it, Kwai said with his pool of experienced,
professionally trained and certified security consultants in various fields of
expertise, he is confident that IHSC can assist the authorities to mitigate
these emerging security threats.

However, Kwai stressed that IHSC was not there to replace the existing
roles of the authorities such as the police, military or other security
apparatus of the government.

"Our role is to complement or value-add to the existing efforts to mitigate
risks in society," he said, adding that IHSC bridged the gaps among the
corporate, private, and the public sectors.

In Malaysia, Kwai said despite the security industry being at its maturing
stage, the level of awareness on the importance of security among the
general population was still low.

He said Malaysians needed a little bit more time to increase their
awareness.

Referring to the increasing number of Malaysians opting for gated housing to
ensure greater security, he said there were also others who wanted their housing
to be more secure and be equipped with surveillance cameras.

On this, Kwai suggested that housing developers should make it a practice to
always include a security master plan as part of their design master plan for
their housing projects.

Such a move would save them a lot of money and time as they do not have to
resort to breaking down and rebuilding walls, floors, or carry out additional
trenching works to lay cables to install the security equipment.

Such a situation, he said, presented the Singapore-based IHSC an opportunty
to
expand its business operations to Malaysia.

Kwai said he also planned to expand IHSC's businesses to cover new locations
such as Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, China, India, Japan and other places in the
Asia Pacific and Middle East.

Commenting on the recent government proposal to increase the wages of
security guards in Malaysia, Kwai said the security industry needed to be
regulated first before the quality of security services in the country could
be enhanced.

A mind-set change among the industry players was needed so that guarding
need not be associated with retirees or people with not so high academic
qualifications.

Kwai said industry players should seriously look into improving the security
service by raising the standards such as having certified training programmes,
employing skilled and trained guards, and recruiting educated and qualified
people.

He said security personnel should also take pride in their jobs and not
regard it as a lowly job.

-- BERNAMA




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