CyberSecurity Malaysia and RAM Credit Info (RAMCI) have teamed up to combat Identity Theft. They signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together to address the growing prevalence of identity theft in Malaysia. With this, they plan to make the public have awareness about the issue, as well as measures to avoid being a victim. According to MyCERT Incident Statistics 2018, identity theft cases in Malaysia have grown by 20%. This data shows 371 cases in 2017, to 446 in 2018. With this, RAMCI conducted their own survey which showed some surprising results. 14% of respondents were victims of identity theft, whilst 26% knew someone who had been a victim.
These are pretty big numbers, and these are only reported incidents. There are probably a larger number of victims, but they haven’t been reported.
Identity theft is prevalent in a modern, always online world, and can be categorised in 4 types:
- Hacking Techniques
- Using physical stolen goods (phones, laptops, tablets)
- Social engineering techniques (phone, email and physical impersonation or phising)
- Social media techniques (information manipulation through social media sites)
Safe to say, it’s a pretty big issue that needs to be addressed in Malaysia. Identity theft occurs when someone steals your personal info or possessions so they can use it for fraudulent transactions. Fraud impersonation, unauthorised transactions, data breach, and account compromise are the common ways to have your identity stolen.
With this, they plan on to bring in several initiatives to help combat fraud. RAMCI and CyberSecurity Malaysia are launching the ‘Stop Identity Theft’ campaign to empower Malaysians with knowledge on the issue. This would include info about identity theft, how to detect a potential breach of their identity, as well has how to safeguard it. There’ll be educational roadshows in the year and RAMCI and CyberSecurity will work closely to address the issue.
