Published: Wednesday April 27, 2011 MYT 5:48:00 PM
By FLORENCE A. SAMY
KUALA LUMPUR: Cyber crimes have drastically increased over the last two years, with more than 3,500 incidents reported in the first quarter of this year, almost the same figure for the entire 2009.
CyberSecurity Malaysia chief operating officer Zahri Yunos said some 8,000 cases were reported for last year and attributed the increase to higher Internet usage and broadband penetration, which currently stood at 55%.
"The cases have increased exponentially. In the first quarter of this year, our Cyber999 security incident help centre has handled 3,563 cases, of which 36% or 1,273 are related to online fraud, including phishing and identity theft.
"This is more than the total incidents for 2009. Phishing sites targetting local banks have also increased with 400 sites detected for the first quarter of this year compared to 900 last year.
"While the numbers are worrying, we are also happy to see that members of the public are notifying us when they come across such fraudulent websites or email," he said at the opening of the Anti-Phishing Working Group's fifth annual international Counter-eCrime Operations Summit here Wednesday.
CyberSecurity Wednesday launched a security browser plug-in called 'Don't Phish Me', which automatically detects fake local banking sites phishing for usernames and passwords in order to illegally withdraw money.
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