Post 3: the Computer Crimes Act 1997

Computer crimes act ensure e-user does not misuses of computers and involve in any computer criminal activities

The criminal activities involve:
1. accessing computer material without aunthorization;
2. accessing computer material without authorization;
3. the commission of further offeces;
4. modifying contents of any computer without authorization;
5. wrongfully communicating a number, code, password or other means of access;
6. to a computer or person whom one is not duly authorized to communicate to;
7. abetting in a computer crime
 

The person is find guilty of an offence if he

Under section 3(1):

Intentionally use a computer as a weapon to perform unauthorized access to any program or data held in any computers.

Punishment:

No more than RM50’000 or imprisonment for not more than 5 years or both.

Under section 4(1):

Intent to use a computer as a weapon to perform unauthorized access to any program or data held in any computer with commit or facilitates commission of further offence which causes injury as defined in the Penal Code due to his fraud or dishonesty.

Punishment:

No more than RM150’000 or imprisonment for not mode than 10 years or both.

Under section 5(1):

Intent to use a computer as a weapon to perform unauthorized access to any program or data held in any computer, and make modification of the contents

Punishment:

No more than RM100’000 or imprisonment for not more than 7 years or both.

Under section 6(1):

A person shall be guilty of an offence if he communicates directly or indirectly a number, code, password or other means of access to a computer to any person other than a person whom is duly authorized to communicate

Punishment:

No more than RM25’000 or imprisonment for not more than 3 years or both.

Post 4: Computer Crime Case 1

Hacker takes aim at actress Meghna Naidu

Monday June 28, 2010

POPULAR Hindi actress Meghna Naidu’s (pic) email account was hacked into with posting that she needed “ad-­vice” after she became pregnant following a fling with a man whose name she could not remember, reported Tamil Nesan. - From Star

For news detail, please visit: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/28/nation/6560063&sec=nation

In this case, under he/she's (hacker) act is definitely guilty of an offence in the computer crime act 1997.

The hacker would be charge under computer crime act 1997's section 3(1) where he/she had intended to broke into other people account which so call authorized access with his skill or knowledge to perform bad function. The hacker use Meghna Naidu account and chart something suspected "fishy" with her friends on behalf of her and this had alerted Meghna Naidu that her email account had been hacked.

The hacker should know hacking into people account is an irresponsible and dishonestly act where he/she will cause the complainant feel insecure and no privacy. The mentality of the complainant will also get impacted where she could believe the hacker may be forwarded others bad emails to her friends or public using her email account. Besides, the complainant will also feel somebody is detailing watching her or spying whatever she did, as a result causing uncomfortable during her normal life.

Computer crime is not strange to us, even though many of us know that hacking into other people computer is a crime act. How to solve the issue and how to prevent it happen has become the popular topic.
In my opinion, computer user, internet service providers and government are playing their important roles to control the crime happen.

As a computer user, he/she must ensure that his/her computer is integrated with a trustable genuine security system like anti-virus and firewall to protect their PC. The installed security system should always updated to get the latest or enhanced protection. And make sure it always ON.

As a internet service provider, they should also provide good security system to avoid unauthorized access. Having knowledgeable or expertise team to defend unauthorized access is necessary.

We have cyber law and government should ensure the laws must enforce effectively and well educated to the public.

Post 5: Computer Crime Case 2

Malaysian charged with hacking into US bank

Saturday November 20, 2010

NEW YORK: A Malaysian man, charged on Thursday with hacking into computer networks of the US Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) and a defence contractor, was caught by Secret Service agents while selling stolen credit card numbers for US$1,000 (RM3,200) at a diner in New York.

For news detail, please visit: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/11/20/nation/7469956&sec=nation

"US prosecutors described Lin Mun Poo, 32, as an “extremely sophisticated and dangerous computer hacker” in documents obtained from the US Justice Department."

In this case, Lin is offenced the computer crime act 1997 section 4(1) where he intended to use his computer to hack into high security cyber systems of major institutions in the US, including the Federal Reserve Bank and the Pentagon’s security contractors. Resulting in thousands of dollars in damages, affecting 10 or more computers.

I am sure this is a very surprise news to most of the Malaysian where our "neighbor" is in the world headline but unfortunate for the wrong reason.

What a waste, imagine a guys who manage to hack into Federal Reserve Bank which has a high security cyber systems had wrongly utilize his skill in an offence of computer crime. I am sure many IT engineers in Malaysia are envy with the skill Lin has, if the skill are proper utilize in a good way, he at least can easily be a specialist in IT firm in many aspect. He can use his skill to increase our central bank security cyber system or may be give advice to the banker how to defend from hacker hack into their system, he is a good candidate who can understand more on the motive of those hacker compare to others.

Is greedy causing the act or we do not appreciate the skill that Lin has is still questionable.

However, one has to responsible for his own actions, if Lin convicted, he would be facing a potential maximum prison sentence of between six-and-a-half years to eight years.