CYBERSECURITY MALAYSIA INTENSIFIES FIGHT AGAINST CYBERCRIME

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- CyberSecurity Malaysia, the national
cybersecurity specialist under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry,
has lined up five projects under the 10th Malaysia Plan to fight the growing
cybercrime threat in the country.

It chief operating officer, Zahri Yunos, said that among them were Cyber999
and Trust Mark.

Cyber999 is a public service that provides emergency response to computer
security related emergencies as well as assistance in handling incidents such as
computer abuses, hack attempts and other information security breaches.

The Trust Mark project was in implementation mode and expected to be
launched soon, Zahri told reporters at the Counter e-Crimes Operations Summit
V here Wednesday.

"We're going to partner with the private sector on this programme, whereas
they could have the Trust Mark logo on their websites as proof of its safeness,"
he said.

CyberSecurity, he said, was also realising a browser plug-in called
"DontPhishme" for internet users. Once installed, this security plug-in allows
automatic detection of fake banking sites.

"Users can download the browser plug-in from the official download
repositories of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome," Zahri said.

Citing a report by KPMG, he said the cost of cybercrime in Malaysia,
including electronic bank fraud and phishing scams, was estimated at RM2.73
billion in 2010.

He said the number of cases reported to the Cyber999 Security Incident Help
Centre was also increasing year-on-year, and this too was proof that public
awareness on the threat of cybercrime was growing.

In the first quarter of 2011, 3,563 incidents were reported to the Cyber999
Security Incident Help Centre and of those, 400 phishing sites targeting
Malaysian banks were reported.

"While the numbers are worrying, we are also happy to see members of the
public notifying us when they come across fraudulent websites or emails," Zahri
said.