SMA to form security unit to combat cybercrime in S’wak

KUCHING (Dec 9): The Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) will be establishing a Cyber Security Unit to curb the spread of cybercrimes in the state, said its general manager Dato Dr Anderson Tiong.

He said the growing cases of cybercrime have made cyber security not just an option, but a necessity.

“As a result (of increased cybercrime cases), the Sarawak government is expediting the implementation of the Cyber Security Framework through the Cyber Security Unit focusing on effective governance, policy, compliance, research, innovation, technology, capacity-building and collaboration.

“In the future, we at SMA will establish the Cyber Security Unit to protect public data and avoid the spread of cybercrime in Sarawak as much as possible,” he said when flagging off SMA’s inaugural Cyber Security Run at Padang Merdeka here today.

Tiong said that based on statistics obtained from the police’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department, a total of 1,901 online crime cases were recorded in Sarawak from Jan 1-Nov 30 this year.

He pointed out this trend shows an increase of 300 cases compared to the same period in 2022 with 1,601 cases.

“For the year 2023, a total of 552 cases involved e-commerce crimes, non-existent loans (299), phone scams (252), love scams (51), impersonation (86), e-finance (136), non-existent investments (252) and job offers (273).

“These data are not something we are proud of because we have a great responsibility to curb this cybercrime,” he added.

According to him, cybercrime can be avoided when individuals protect their own personal data.

“This means, do not share any of your information such as ID card number, bank account number and so on to third parties,” he said.

He also said authorities such as the police, the Customs Department and the Inland Revenue Board (IRB), which are often targeted by cybercriminals to intimidate victims, never deal office business through phone calls.

“If you have any doubts, please contact the relevant government agency for more accurate information,” he added.

Some 2,000 participants participated in the event held in conjunction with the Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Month 2023.

Also held was a briefing from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and Sarawak Information System on the topic of “Click Wisely” and also from Sarawak Information System.