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Internet use, online safety must go together - Fadillah

07 Jul 2012, The Borneo Post

KUCHING: Online safety awareness must be inclusive of the rapid growth of information technology.

Making the call was Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Fadillah Yusof who said Internet users must be aware of their vulnerabilities when they go online.

“From Jan to June this year, 5,581 cases were reported to CyberSecurity Malaysia through their Cyber999 hotline,” said Fadillah who launched the DiGi CyberSAFE programme at SMK Petra Jaya yesterday.

Even though the number of cases has dropped 24.6 per cent within the same period in 2011, Fadillah believes that more work needs to be done for the safety of all, especially children.

He added that 11 out of the 5,581 cases involved those below 18 years old.

“Another point of concern are those cases which go unreported,” said Fadillah, who broke down the categories into vulnerability report, spamming, malicious codes, intrusion attempt, intrusion, fraud, denial of service (DoS attack), cyber harassment and content related.

Fadillah, who is also Petra Jaya MP, said the DiGi CyberSAFE programme was timely and relevant as it reaches out to school students.

He also said that there are 25.3 million internet users in Malaysia, out of the 28 million population.

The programme, which was recently carried out in Lundu and Sematan, saw the participation of more than 400 students.

Since the launch in 2011, the programme has educated more than 3,700 students, educators and parents from 170 schools in Putrajaya, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Melaka, Terengganu, Sarawak and Sabah.

The programme is organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, CyberSecurity Malaysia, Childline Malaysia, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and DiGi.

Present at yesterday’s programme was Sarawak Education Department deputy director Abdul Wahed Rosli, DiGi’s Sarawak regional head Benny Wee and Cyber Security Malaysia vice-president of outreach Lt Col (r) Mustaffa Ahmad.

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