[ISN] New Malaysian law to curb hacking

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Tue Apr 17 2001 - 22:58:43 PDT

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    http://www.timesofindia.com/170401/17info19.htm
    
    17 April 2001
    
    KUALA LUMPUR: Computer hackers in Malaysia will face up to four years'
    jail or a fine of up to 250,000 ringgit ($65,790) - or both penalties
    - under a tough draft data protection law, a newspaper has reported.
    
    The New Straits Times said that people who obtained personal data from
    hackers and then sold it would face up to three years' jail or a fine
    of 200,000 ringgit or both.
    
    If a company commited a data offence its top officials could also be
    liable unless they could prove they knew nothing about the hacking,
    the report said. Official comment was not immediately available.
    
    The draft law provided for the appointment of a commissioner for
    personal data protection to enforce it, the newspaper said.
    
    Home affairs minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had said last week that
    more than 1,700 cases of hacking were reported between August 1997 and
    March this year, and that many involved official websites.
    
    Supporters and opponents of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim
    last year waged a cyber-war by defacing each other's websites.
    
    Anwar's followers have established a variety of websites to press his
    case.
    
    Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has developed an ambitious
    Multimedia Super Corridor south of Kuala Lumpur to attract IT firms,
    has promised not to censor the Internet.
    
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