MALAYSIA CYBER LAWS

MALAYSIA CYBER LAWS

Just like any other developing countries, Malaysia also is also involved in evolution of technology. Internet has become a necessities for everybody in business, Life activity communicate socializing and Daily life. Despite being a positive tool for users, there are some of irresponsible people that are using internet in negative way such as online fraud, identity theft, virus attack and hacking. Therefore, the Malaysia government imposes a few laws to overcome these problems by introducing a few acts of law that can be used for prosecuting cyber-crimes.

The Copyright (Amended) Act 1997 - This act is amendment from Copyright Act 1987. It will be protecting the copyright works from unauthorized copying and/or alteration. Since technology is always evolved, this act helps to protect copyright works in new forms. The enforcement of the act has been done on 1 April 1999

The Computer Crimes Act 1997 - The main reason for enforcing this act is to ensure that misuse of computer can be overcome. Misuse of computer will be an offence in Malaysia. This act is enforced on 1 June 2000 (Multimedia Development Corporation, 1996-2012).

Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act, 1998 -  This act is the main pillar for other cyber laws in Malaysia. It will explain each roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers. It also stated that there will be no filtering in accessing the Internet in Malaysia. A specialize government body in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is also been established by using this particular act, which is the Communication and Multimedia Commission. It is already being enforced by the government on 1st April 1999 (Multimedia Development Corporation, 1996-2012).

Penal Code - It is the pillar or the main statute in Malaysia. This is because not all cyber-crimes can be enforced using all cyber laws. Therefore, Penal Code will be used as a backup to charge the criminal involved in cyber-crimes. Examples of case are online fraud, online gambling and online pornography. This will avoid the criminals from charged not guilty (Zulhuda, 2010).