Efficiency of Legal and Regulatory Framework in Combating Cybercrime in Malaysia
Shereen Khan, Olivia Tan Swee Leng, Nasreen Khan
Multimedia University
Abstract
This paper examines on the increase of cybercrimes in Malaysia and how this issue should be resolved. Cybercrime which is also known as computer crime, involves the use of a computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography, intellectual property, cyberbullying, stealing identities or violating privacy. There are several legislations covering the cybercrime, but statistics show that there is an increase of cybercrime in Malaysia. Cybercrimes involving losses of RM67.6 million in 2,207 cases were reported in the first three months of 2019. Cybercrimes are a serious threat to the people as these frauds can cause them to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money. In fact, losses involving cybercrime, especially online scams, have been on the rise since 2017. Fraud cases alone in cyberspace have jumped 20 percent in 2018, excluding the other top cybercrimes such as intrusion, spam and malicious code. Thus, the objective of this paper is to investigate and examine on the efficiency of existing legal and regulatory framework in combating cybercrime and to further investigate and examine how this issue is handled in other jurisdictions. The main objective is to recommend whether to enact a new legislation to address all types of cybercrime including cyberbullying which is a serious crime committed among the students. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used and comparative study was conducted by analysing the practice in other jurisdictions specifically with the United Kingdom and the United States as well as selected interviews were conducted with related Government Agencies. A survey was conducted from the general public to capture the public opinion on this issue.
Keywords: cybercrimes; legislation; digital governance
Topic: Digital Government