Police To Set Up Centre, Database To Curb Cyber Crime

By Noraidah Abdul Karim

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 (Bernama) -- The police force plans to set up a one-stop centre to curb commercial crimes, especially cyber crimes quickly, said Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Wira Syed Ismail Syed Azizan.

He said the centre would be modelled after the Taiwan Cybercrime Prevention and Fighting Centre which managed to control fast growing cyber crimes and threats on the Internet.

The setting up of the centre will help speed-up commercial crime investigations as time is crucial, he told reporters in an interview in conjunction with the 204th Police Day celebration on Friday.

"For example, when a customer is duped by an online banking scam, he must contact the centre quickly to enable to the police to tell the bank to block the transaction," he said.

He said besides the one-stop centre, the Commercial Criminal Investigation Department (CCID) was also planning set up a database on white-collar criminals, including their modus operandi through police intelligence and complaints from victims.

"At present, the data is done manually and an application for facilities to set up the database had been submitted to the Logistics Department. We hope it can be set up in June or July," he said.

Cases involving misuse of information and communication technology (ICT) kept growing since 2000 and transcended national boundaries, he said, adding that they had changed with times from merely slanders, instigations and intimidations.

He said CCID officers were sent to attend training on crime trends, especially cyber crimes as the increase in the number of Internet users by 45.42 percent over the last 10 years had resulted in cyber criminals unleashed new scams at every opportunity.

In retrospect, he said corporate, financial, insurance and cooperative frauds began to emerge in 1980s followed by organised credit card, ATM, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and share scams which transcended across border in 1990s.

He said fraud, criminal breach of trust and cyber crimes took a turn for the worst in 2009 with 24,590 cases involving the loss of RM1.4 billion reporters followed by in 2010 (24,023 cases involving the loss of RM918 million).

He said the CCID, which boasted 1,400 personnel, was previously under the ambit of the Crime Investigation Department before it was elevated to the present status in 2005.