:: TUTORIAL ::

a) Andrew is a computer science student attached with Microhard Corporation in Cyberjaya as a practical trainee. One day he managed to crack the company’s information system but did not do anything afterwards. The following day he also managed to intrude into Microhard’s Corporation’s website system and then posted his picture in the front page of the website and left his mobile number below his picture hoping that someone will call him and make friends. Subsequently his phone rang, but unfortunately it was his training manager who called and later warned him that actions will be taken. Upon investigation, it wad also revealed that Andrew had previously leaked the company’s system access code to his friends at University, to who he also sent emails telling bad things about his manager. Advise Microhard Corporation on various potential liabilities of Andrew from the above incidents, with reference to various cybercrimes laws applicable in Malaysia.

In this issue, Andrew has intentionally misuse the computer that resulted harmful to others. There are a few charges that can be enact against Andrew using the Computer Crimes Act 1997.

CASE 1

Andrew cracks the company’s information system but did not do anything afterwards.
The applicable law can be enforced in CCA s.3(1) which falls under unauthorized access to computer, computer system & computer network which the punishment will be fined up to RM 50000 or up to 5 years imprisonment or both.

CASE 2

Andrew intrude into his company’s website system
The applicable law would be CCA s.3 (1) which falls under system intrusion which the punishment will be fined up to RM 50000 or up to 5 years imprisonment or both.

CASE 3

Andrew posted his picture on the front page of the website and left his mobile number below his picture so that someone will call him & make friends.
The applicable law can be enforceable under CCA s.5 (1) which falls under unauthorized alteration, amendment & modification of data which the punishment will be fined up to RM 100000 or up to 7 years imprisonment or both.

CASE 4

Andrew leaked the company’s system access code to his friends at University.
The applicable law can be enforceable under CCA s.6(1) which falls under unauthorized communication of passwords which the punishment will be fined up to RM 25000 or up to 3 years imprisonment or both.

CASE 5

Andrew sent e-mail to his friends telling bad things about his manager.
The applicable law can be enforceable under CMA s.211 which falls under e-mail with false spreading and e-mail with hatred and abusive content which the punishment will be fined up to RM 50000 or up to 1 year imprisonment or both.

if he found guilty for ALL offenses, the maximum punishment will be the sum of each offenses he has done.

b) Meera has been receiving emails from travel companies that keep offering her holiday packages to various places in the world She replied to the senders to stop emailing her, but only to find that the emails keep coming and flooding her inbox. She came to you to on the legal aspects that may arise out of this practise by the travel company. Advise her on both criminal and data protection aspects.

The traveling companies can be charge in court because of improper use of network facilities / services. The company is sending unsolicited commercial e-mails also known as spamming. This travel companies misuse the customer data and keep on sending mail to Meera and it is clearly went against the law on unsolicited commercial e-mail.

I would advise to Meera that the action of the travel companies is falls on the Communications & Multimedia Act 1998.This is just clearly a spamming case despite the Meera’s pleading by emailing them to stop sending her all those emails. The person hold responsible if found guilty, would face fine up to RM50000 or imprisonment up to 1 year or both.

Obviously, what

The objective of this poster is to create awareness of how concern our government and society to fight and reduce cyber crime that keep arising in this technological age today.

As we know, cyber crime cases is getting increase each day. We as a responsible citizen, we need to combine our strength together to help our government and other agencies responsible to stop cyber crime. The government need tighten up Multimedia Law in Malaysia as concern are more about security and privacy of internet user.

Today, cyber crime in Malaysia is a serious offense. It affects individual, company, society and government which may cause them financial lost, being defamed, and many more.

RM65mil cyber fund fraud case the first in Malaysia :: LOCAL ::

There is a case of internet investment fraud in Malaysia involving cyber fund manager who has been operating over the cyber world without a license. He became the country's first man to be charged in a court for an Internet investment scam involving RM65mil. Unpredictably, there are more than 100 Malaysians had invested over a period of three months. If convicted, he can be fined a maximum of RM1mil or jailed up to 10 years under Section 15C of the Securities Industry Act 1983. The case is still on hold which the judge fixed five days from Nov 3 for his trial after the prosecution.

URL: http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20080301-52197.html

Comment:

The internet fraud criminal can also be categorized as white collar crime because a lot of internet fraud cases committed by persons at managerial and executive levels as they has a skills and expertise in computer. In this case, close observation for those in these positions are necessary as they are more prone to committing such crimes because of the opportunities available to them by virtue of their positions.

Nowadays, issues related to financial crime, fraud and corruption were a major concern to the government. Internet fraud in Malaysia becoming worst and more serious as between January and August this year, the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) estimated the loss from various financial crimes at RM546,114,099. As for the whole of last year, the loss relating internet fraud was reported at RM1,988,959,883. It means more then RM1 trillion lost to white collar crime as a whole.

For example, people in highest level in the company which have the authority to enter the system or database must be responsible towards their capability of accessing the company’s information and make sure all the data or information is safe and clean. People with unethical manner intentionally take benefits of their position by altering computer input in an unauthorized way, altering, destroying, suppressing, or stealing output, usually to conceal unauthorized transactions, altering or deleting stored data, altering or misusing existing system tools or software packages, or altering or writing code for fraudulent purposes.

Thus, The development of the Multimedia Super Corridor and the creation of a legal and regulatory framework encompassing, amongst other things, the Communications and Multimedia Act, the Computer Crimes Act and the Digital Signatures Act could reduce the crime over the internet.

Internet Censorship in China :: GLOBAL ::

Internet censorship in China is among the most stringent in the world. The government tend to monitor and control how its citizens use the internet.The government also monitors and citizen volunteers regularly sweep through blogs, chat forums, and even e-mail to ensure nothing challenges the country's self-styled "harmonious society." they also blocked many website relating to entertainment, news, pornography and many more.

URL: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885961,00.html

Comment:

From my point of view, this seems not to be a good idea and unfair as for the China Government to limit the information retrieved from the internet. Nowadays, Internet is the centralize of information gathering from anyone all over the world. It means internet holds a vasts number of information that might be useful for any reason or purpose. The government developed the boundaries of retrieving or viewing information freely.

Each human have their right to surf and to access any source or information on the internet as long as they didn't harm and stay respect of other people, company and government. Such a move will be ineffective in a borderless world where information flows freely. It would also lead to dissatisfaction among people because they have a rights to access any information on the internet and its only the matter of how ethical is the internet user.

Apart from that, If they they keep censoring more websites, its going to scare investors as they would think twice before investing in China. This could hinder the growth of economy. The investors would be taking out their money and invest it on another country such as Singapore , Thailand , Philippines and even Indonesia. This would be really bad for China.

Chinese people is like trap in their own country. Citizens are hardly to communicate with other outside the country since the government monitor and citizen volunteers regularly sweep through blogs, chat forums, and even e-mail to ensure nothing challenges the country's self-styled "harmonious society." Means, there are no more privacy to Chinese people.

The government should take this into consideration. They should think of allows their citizen to be rich with information retrieved from the internet as well as get the right to access any accessible material as long as they act in ethical manner and doesn't harm any people. They need to develop a self-regulatory to each of citizen to make sure they act in a good ethical behavior on the internet and develop a strong legislation that concern about internet censorship in China.

Internet Censorship :: LOCAL ::

Well, all of a sudden and out of the blues our Information Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim wants to formulate a filter whereby its possible to block undesirable Web sites, on the grounds of maintaining racial harmony in the multicultural nation and to prevent our children from watching pornographic material through the Internet.

URL: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200908060519dowjonesdjonline000453&title=malaysia-considers-china-style-internet-censor

Today, The Government will not censor the Internet as such a move will be ineffective in a borderless world where information flows freely, said the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. It would also lead to dissatisfaction among people because they have a rights to access any information on the internet and its only the matter of how ethical is the internet user.

URL: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/7/nation/20090807143305&sec=nation

Comment:

Now , what happens if they try to filter the Internet. They could do it in several ways. Force users to use their own dial-up client or software which automatically filters from both software and hardware side , or they could do it in hardware side – whereby they would install filters which would do their job).

Now my question is why should the government spend on taxpayers money in installing such a filter in a large scale ? Wouldn’t it be better if the money is used to upgrade infrastructures of Malaysian Internet such as providing a speedy connection and not to mention widen broadband coverage zone. If the government think that pornographic materials are indeed bad for our society. They should at least educate parents and also children the adverse effects of it.

Apart from that , I truly believe that its the parents responsibility to install filters to block pornographic web-site. Let’s face it , all modern day operating systems such as Windows Vista (and the up-coming Windows 7) and as well as MacOS X comes along with parental control. On top of that even anti-virus , firewall and internet security solution which would do the trick. Parents should starting playing their role instead of just leaving it to the government or to someone else to take care of their children’s pornographic addiction.

Lastly but not least , it contradicts MSC's Bill of Guarantee whereby there wouldn’t be any kind of Internet censorship. If you would like to read more about MSC Bill of Guarantee , I would suggest you to head up to MSC site and read all about it. Its better to learn about it .

Student Copyright Case :: GLOBAL ::

As the technological changes rapidly, amount of user who misuse the computer by connecting to a network increasing as well. Student are more likely to find an easiest way to complete their assignment.

In high technology on communication and multimedia world, there is a company who has developed a system that allows student's work to be check either its original or its has been plagiarized. The system is really helpful for the lecture as the lecturer submitted student's work into a database and tracking student who involved in plagiarism.



Comment:

Copyright is product that has a human creativity. It develop by individual that has include elements of eligible work, originality and material form or fixation in their work. The product that has fulfilled the requirement shall be entitled copyright automatically. The product owner's are given legal protection and remedy against unlawful and non consented exploitation.

With the convergence of technological era, it allows student to access any accessible material on the internet and student take advantage of the technology by simply cut and paste the content into their assignment, compile it and assume that is their original work. This is inappropriate and unethical for student to do such thing on their work or assignment.

The system introduced seems to be practical to use in order to track any plagiarism work done by student or anyone. Now, plagiarizer can easily be found by a simple click. It is best to implement in to education sector around to reduce student who plagiarized in their work as well as develop a quality student.

In Malaysia Copyright Act 1998, if a student are convicted of such offense which committed plagiarism and selling or publishing or distributing it, they can be penalize not more than RM10,000 fine or not more than 5 years imprisonment or both. If a student committed plagiarism but for the purpose of their own use and not publishing it and making money from it, means that student are not guilty of such offense. He or she didn't attempt any crime in cyberspace.

It is necessary for each individual to be responsible and honest in any work they attempted to do. Work must be original and does not involve any elements of plagiarism because if your work do have those elements, it can easily be track by using a new system of tracking plagiarize work.
and you will get an extra "mark" by you lecture or boss.

Trade Mark Use on the Internet – A Malaysian Perspective :: LOCAL ::

In order to ensure the validity of a trade mark, it is a requirement that the owner of the mark put their trade mark to use to indicate a connection in the course of trade to the goods or services applied for. While there are no decided court cases in Malaysia on the subject of use of a trade mark over the Internet as yet, decisions under the new Malaysian Dispute Resolution Procedure (MYDRP) are a useful guide to how the Malaysian courts may approach this issue. The MYDRP is modeled closely on ICANN’s UDRP and disputes under the MYDRP are heard by the Panelists at the Regional Centre for Arbitration Kuala Lumpur (RCAKL). The MYDRP governs only “.com.my” websites. Recent Panel decisions such as NEP Holdings (Malaysia) Bhd. v Liew Bin Dian t/a C & C Network and Volkswagen Group Singapore Pte. Ltd. v Webmotion Design have both made reference to the trade mark on the Internet. These decisions signify a trend towards accepting use over the Internet as “use” for trade mark purposes, as far as domain name disputes are concerned.

However, if the web server is located outside the relevant jurisdiction or the website has a country specific ccTLD or the website simply caters to another jurisdiction, the answer may be different. In the UK case of 800-Flowers Trade Mark it was held that a globally accessible website does not prima facie constitute use in the trade mark sense within the United Kingdom. The case further held that the question of use would very much depend on the circumstances, particularly the intentions of the website proprietor and what the average visitor comprehends upon accessing the website. Trade mark owners should note that the 800-Flowers case suggests that the provision of interactive facilities by the website owner may constitute use. If a consumer accesses a website and orders goods or services as a result of the advertisement or information on the website, this could arguably amount to use of the mark. This reasoning was also followed in the subsequent case of Euromarket Designs Incorporated v Peters & Anor.

©patrick mirandah co.

URL:http://www.mirandah.com/Trade_Mark_Use_on_the_Internet_%E2%80%93_A_Malaysian_Perspective.aspx

11 Cases Taken To Court Under Communications And Multimedia Act

Eleven cases have been taken to court under Section 211 and Section 233 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 involving fines amounting to RM24,500 from last year until now.

Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said they consisted of six cases of posting comments insulting the Sultan of Perak (eight individuals); sending vulgar/obscene SMS (3); sending obscene e-mail (1) and sending obscene/vulgar comment (1).

He said that in the case of insulting the Sultan of Perak, an individual had pleaded guilty and was fined RM10,000 while five cases (seven individuals) were waiting for trial.

URL: http://blogs.iium.edu.my/ka_mokhtar/2009/10/21/11-cases-taken-to-court-under-communications-and-multimedia-act/

Comment:

In opinion, Malaysia is a country managed by its own government and each of its states is ruled by respective sultans. Refering to the above case, all individuals that were involved in the act should be taken to task as the offence that they had committed mainly falls under the Sedition Act 1948 which is then narrowed down to Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 due to the devices and methods used.

In fact, sultans were given its own statutory powers and rights in the country even before independence was declared. In return, we as a citizen should have the sense of respect, loyalness and ethical values to our own ruler in memory of their contribution to the country as well as our given pledged.

Furthermore, This does not only apply to our own government or ruler but also to one another in assuring a peaceful and harmonious multi-racial country to live in. We as a human who live in a huge society must have respect to each other.

Finally, such offense is a serious matter as citizen must show respect towards leader. We as a citizen has our own role to make to make sure our country is safe and peace. As well as to prevent those matter to occur again.

Court Order Google to Turn Over Youtube Data :: GLOBAL ::

Almost every person who use the internet has one time over another watch the video on Youtube. In April alone, 82 million Americans viewed over 4 billion clips on the website. In this case, Viacom winning the lawsuit against Youtube owner of Google forcing the company to hand over its record of what people are watching on Youtube. Invasion of privacy or this is necessary legal tool?

Comment:

In my opinion, by giving away user's information, it will resulted in privacy disaster. For me it is not necessary to settle the case. Frankly, i don't know who would use the internet and use the tools anymore if they knew every time they access someone else would know about it.

The court are allow to access to private data. That means user no longer exist anonymously on the internet world. They can't just hide behind the computer and assume there is no consequences of what they do. The big company, Viacom, claiming that people were violating and infringing upon their intellectual property right that is why Viacom bring the case to court forcing Google to reveal user's record.

By law, the data user must reveal data to the 3rd party if and only if the defendant found guilty of such offenses and it is a court order to reveal the data. In this case, resulted in Viacom winning the lawsuit against Youtube owner of Google forcing the company to hand over its record of what people are watching on Youtube.

Besides that, it is necessary to hand over the record if they have a really strong reason on the purpose of collecting data such as for the purpose of upgrading and enhancing the system and security, buying and selling purposes, developing a new competitive product relating to business environment, and legal issues.

Finally, it is okay and considerable to hand over only data of individual who committed to such offense and keep respect of as well as not involving other data privacy.

Blogger Sues Google for Revealing Her Identity :: GLOBAL ::

As the case below resulting in Cohen wins court battle to expose blogger identity, the same anonymous blogger which committed in defamation on the internet want to sues Google for revealing her identity.

Comment:

Google revealing the identity of the anonymous blogger according to court order. By law, Google are allows to reveal someone's identity if it is an order from a court.

In this case, I would definitely feel that the said blogger's idea in suing "Google" for revealing her identity is seriously ridiculous and unjustified.

First of all, said blogger had already committed an offense under the law by posting comments and remarks which had resulted in defaming a person's reputation. While Google's action on revealing the blogger's identity is far by justified because of the court order ruling.

Therefore, i would say that the blogger has no grounds on resulting such action to sue Google.

Skank ruling rips open web anonymity :: GLOBAL ::

Last week, Google was forced to reveal the electronic identity of an anonymous blogger who had defamed an international cover girl online. While cyber victims welcome the move, some Internet users are outraged at the invasion of online privacy.

Comment:

Above case indicates that there are a few internet users who were outraged on the decision made to reveal the anonymous blogger's identity as it is considered an invasion of a person's online privacy.

This however, i strongly disagree. Gis of case clearly states that "Google" initially did not reveal the said blogger's identity upon the request of said cover-girl as it is part of the rights given to each of their users in its agreement under terms and condition. Therefore, this proves that google had made a correct decision and not breaching its agreement.

Unfortunately, said cover-girl had later decided to file sue on google for not reveiling the blogger's identity whom had posted unpleasant remarks on her which can also be called as defamation. In favour of the cover-girl, court had granted her request and ordered google to reveal the identity of the blogger.

As a result, google had no other options but to reveal its user. My point is, online privacy has already been entitled to each and every internet users. However, in this particular case the said blogger had misused its given privilege.

In conclusion, reason for such actions to be taken is also to protect other internet users in cases not only as mentioned but also cases that relates to crime and other misuse act under the law. Overall, i do not see that we as an internet user should feel unhappy or outraged on the matter.

The Malaysia Supreme Court Building In Kuala Lumpur

facebook killed the private life :: GLOBAL ::

In this thechnology world, more people goes online to interact and communicate with friend, family, relative and other. In fact, social network has become famous and number of user is increasing each day. Currently, Facebook has become the most famous social network community in society all around the world. We can say almost everyone around the world is on Facebook. Nowadays, society are more preferred to stay in touch and communicate in Facebook. They publish and share their personal information, images, video and many other information to public and can be easily accessible by any anonymous person regardless their privacy.

In fact, social network are profoundly changing the definition of what we consider as private. Even Facebook is for public, people still concern about their privacy but some people doesn't really care about that. For example, there is a group of people is talking in public, then one unknown person come in join the group but the person are the weird one in this situation. In the real world, we call that lots of places where you were in public but you are not in public.

Some people may think the more they let people in the wider the audience and stronger their following. I might agree with this because for me it is neither about popularity nor fame. This is all about the opportunity that internet world created to make more money in cyber world. By using Facebook, people can easily post their new product or services and share it to all friend. This means, the more friend you have in the list the more chances for you to create more money. This is a good way of doing a business but user must separate their own personal account and business account.

As the communication technology has been revolutionize, it may lead to privacy disaster and affects everyone who is on Facebook. User may has concern about their privacy issues in Facebook as they have a right of privacy in cyber world. Therefore, the government should formulate and tighten up the law on privacy and to make sure everyone can surfing safely and their personal information will be protected

Karpal may propose privacy laws :: LOCAL ::

DAP national chairman Karpal Singh said today he may propose privacy legislation through a Private Member's Bill during the next session of the Dewan Rakyat in 2010. By constructing new law on privacy, it may reduce cyber crime cases and the safety of internet or computer user. Karpal singh also said the thresholds for defamation did provide some incidental protection against unwarranted privacy invasions.

This law is propose due to Malaysia looks set to enact a Personal Data Protection Act in which still lacking in specific legislation to protect the right to privacy for each user. The Personal Data Protection Bill 2009, largely regulates data collection, storage and processing in commercial transactions. Else, Privacy protection is available in limited circumstances via specific provisions in several laws, including the Penal Code, and Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

URL: http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/political-news/154477-karpal-may-propose-privacy-laws.html

Comment:

The idea of proposing the new Multimedia Law regarding privacy is good and necessary. As we look into the internet and computer world, we can see there are a huge amount of data and information gather from approximately 1,733,993,741 users all around the world. In order to keep the data and everyone safe, the government or agency that responsible need to implement law on highest privacy for all users and improve the security to make it difficult to be broke or sneak in. Privacy on data and user must be protect because as the cyber crime is rapidly growing together with the technology world.

More than 4,000 cybercrime cases reported in two years :: LOCAL ::

Statistic in Malaysia shows more than 4,000 cyber crime complaints reported in two years, mostly consisted of hack threats, fraud, denial of services and other computer problem such files lost or corrupted by viruses. This is not a good sight for us. Hackers can simply break into our computer system and personal information, missed use and destroy it.

There are many agencies involved to solving computer problems as they aimed to serve the needs of the public and improve security to decrease number of cyber crime. the agency's services catered for individuals, as well as companies, who faced computer related problems. The public agency was also working closely with enforcement agencies such as the police in solving cybercrimes in the country.

URL: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/1/17/nation/20090117161235&sec=nation

Comment:

Cybercrime is a crime committed by a person who has an ability or expertise to use computer on the internet to gain benefit of its own or company by hurting other people. This is not a good exercise made by unethical person on the internet and many people worries about their safety and security in cyber world as the technology allow access to those criminal to commit crime easily without thinking of others.

There are many cases involving cyber crime which disturbing and distracting our privacy and safety in cyber world for example hacking. These hackers have an ability to sneak into our personal data or send viruses into our computer systems.

If there is no law regarding those matters, many people, company or government will experience financial lost and it will also affects country's economic as a whole. People won't go online if they know there is no security that could protect them from hunger of computer criminal.

Hence, by formulating and strengthen the law, it will affect behavior of internet user behaving on the internet. it will also avoid and minimize such cases.

Don't Be like this Ugly hAckErS!!

Questions cloud cyber crime cases :: GLOBAL ::

Recently, a 19 years old teenage was accused of crushing systems at the port of Houston in Texas hacking into its computer systems.

He was accused of bombing the port's computer system with thousands of uninvited electronic messages on 20 September 2001 but the jury cleared him after believing his defense that there is another hackers had broken into his computer and used it to launch the attack.

The end of this case, the teenage was found not guilty because the prosecution case failed to convince the jury that the teenage was responsible for the attack.

URL : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3202116.stm

Comment:

In my opinion, the defendant should have full responsibility towards their own system and to keep their system always be protected. He need to make sure that no one can easily access his system and act in a way that could harm other people, company or country on the internet.

In this technological age, computer crime such as internet fraud, spamming, hacking, defamation and etc has become a major concern to all society. Many people tend to take advantage from it that may result in someone's loss. Hence, many program and software has been develop to enhance the security as well as reduce the issues.

In Malaysia, if the person found guilty for such offense, he will be convicted under Section 4 Computer Crime Act 1997 unauthorized access to facilitate further offense which he may either to pay maximum of RM150,000 or imprisonment up to 10 years or both.

Finally, every person who get access on the internet world need to have an understand of the concept of public is not always public. They need to have a characteristic of self regulatory to behave in ethical manner and respect other who surfing on the internet.

Introduction to Legal Framework for Multimedia

The thing never come a cross my mind to study law but in Legal Framework class, it change my perception about law and how important for each of us need to understand law in our love country. This is an interesting subject because we are learning the foundation of law in Malaysia and Law in Multimedia.

This subject help me to recognize and understand more about law, cyber crime, digital privacy and etc. that i should know because it relating to what i want to do in future. By understand these law, we can't easily being fool and simply breaking the law.

I would like to share and give some comments about latest issues relating law and regulation and multimedia legal framework. As we know, there are many issues regarding law, court cases, crimes and many more involving public and private law happen in the world today.