PETALING JAYA: A total of RM3.18 billion has been lost to online scams involving more than 95,800 victims between 2021 and April 2024, said Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
He said the figure could be higher as many victims may not have reported to the authorities for various reasons.
"Cases related to phishing, fraud and scam have risen tremendously, as criminals take advantage of the shift towards remote work and causing this issue to become a post-pandemic problem experienced by most countries," he said.
Gobind said this during his speech at the signing of several memoranda of understanding (MoU) between Axiata Group Berhad, CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) here today.
He said CSM statistics also showed that cyber security cases had increased in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period last year.
"From January to July this year, CSM recorded a total of 3,607 cyber security cases compared to 3,327 in the same period last year."
The highest was fraud, which recorded 2,337 cases, followed by malicious code (362), data breaches (312), intrusion attempts (240), intrusions (230), vulnerabilities (69), spam (46) and denial of service (11)," he said.
Amid the growing risk and threat of cyber attacks, Gobind said that the government is committed to working with all parties in creating a safer and more resilient cyber ecosystem by increasing national security, economic prosperity and social harmony for the economy and the people.
"I also hope that the recently amended Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) will be enforced at the end of this month boost Malaysia's digital competitiveness by ensuring secure management of personal data in commercial transactions."
"Additionally, the ministry also plans to establish a Data Commission at the end of this year to improve the nation's data security," he said.
Meanwhile, he said the collaboration between Axiata, CSM and MDEC is important in jointly fighting high-tech crime and upholding the law.
"Cyber security will continue to be a critical foundation and prerequisite for Malaysia's digital economic capabilities."
"We believe that cooperation like this is one of the most effective strategies to combat cybercrime and accelerate a faster response to monitoring, detection and response to cyberattacks," he said.