Malaysia warns ASEAN against cyber crimes

Malaysia warns ASEAN against cyber crimes

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Prime Minister NajibRazak has warned ASEAN against the increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals that pose great risks to any country and government.

Speaking at the 10th ASEAN Telecommunications and InformationTechnology Ministers Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Najiburged ASEAN governments to gear up their capacity in dealing withcyber threats before they cause irreparable damage to economies andcountries.

"We need to step up our capacity building to ensure thatgovernments and law enforcement officials remain ahead of existingcyber threats, and on the pulse of emerging ones," stressed Najib.

Najib said the internet must be managed although it seemed almostimpossible to completely regulate its usage.

He also said that eastern cultural values could come into play inpreventing indecency and anarchy from seeping into ASEAN environmentthat sees a growing population of information and communicationtechnology (ICT) users.

More than 78 percent of ASEAN citizens use ICT in differentfacets of their lives today.

In the last decade, mobile penetration for the region grew froman average of 4.3 percent in 2000 to more than 76 percent by the endof 2009.

China's Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, XiGuohua, South Korean Minister of Information and JapaneseCommunication Minister were also present at the meeting.

They are expected to hold separate dialogues with ASEAN delegateson Friday.