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The advent of information and communication technology, ICT, brings good and bad things. We have new ways of acquiring knowledge and doing business. But, we also face criminals who abuse ICT to do harm to others.

The Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan On says that Socso website was broken in by a hacker two days ago. It has been rectified and a new security system will be installed.

In the last two years, hackers broke into at least 60 government departments. Many more cases are unreported.

INTERNATIONAL RULE

As information and communication technology, ICT, advances, cybercrimes increase. Some people are or become criminals. For example, Internet that links with tens of millions of computers in the world is open to use and abuse. Hackers misuse the ICT to encroach on people's websites, polluting or destroying valuable information. There are other crimes like online fraud, infringement of copy rights and child pornography.

Internet users must upgrade their security system. Besides installing a new security system, we must find international cooperation for cybercrime code. Perpetrators of these crimes may be anywhere in the world. We have difficulty identifying hackers within the country, let alone overseas.

The existing cyberlaws are not enough to cope with cybercrimes. Therefore, we hope that the Government consider international cooperation, convention and code, so that there will be effective rule against cybercriminals.

On 22 June, 2001, 41 countries in the Council of Europe, U.S.A., Canada and Japan signed a draft of cybercrime convention in Brussels. This is a start. Malaysia should not lag behind. Instead, it should be more active in tackling cybercrimes.