KUALA LUMPUR: A suspected hacker has been arrested for attempting to sell government agency data on the dark web.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the suspect was captured here following a raid on Dec 25.
“The 24-year-old suspect is believed to have offered data belonging to the government agency for US$200 (RM927) per set.
“He was expecting payment in the form of cryptocurrency,” he told reporters here yesterday.
Comm Ramli said the suspect was identified and caught based on the diligence and swift action of the CCID Cryptocurrency Crime Investigation Unit.
“The suspect was remanded for four days before he was released on police bail,” he said.
“We have classified the case under Section 4(1) of the Computer Crimes Act 1997 for unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer.”
Comm Ramli said the data involved personal and sensitive information about the government agency.
“This is believed to be the suspect’s first offence. He has experience in ICT (information and communications technology),” he said.
In an unrelated case, Comm Ramli said a company appointed as an agent to collect zakat (tithes) is currently being investigated for allegedly misappropriating nearly RM10mil that it had collected.He said throughout last year, his department had investigated four criminal breach of trust cases – two in Selangor, and one each in Terengganu and Perak.
“In this case, the company that was appointed to collect tithes is suspected to have failed to deposit the tithes between March and September last year.
“The total losses in these cases are RM9.714mil with the Perak case alone at RM9.629mil,” he revealed.
Comm Ramli said it was unfortunate that zakat money was being misappropriated by the people entrusted with taking the collections.
“This should not happen because zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam that every Muslim adheres to.
“The tithes should be managed well and with trust so that they can be used by the wishes of the religion,” he said.
Comm Ramli warned the perpetrators of such crimes that strict action would be taken against them.
He said police have taken statements from several individuals in connection with the case so far, but declined to elaborate.
Comm Ramli also revealed that a whopping RM14.3bil was lost to commercial crimes between 2019 and 2022, involving 156,029 cases nationwide.
“Analyses showed that a 53.2% increase in cases was recorded in 2023 compared with five years ago,” he said.
In 2019, 26,330 cases were recorded involving losses of RM6.2bil while in 2020, 27,323 cases were recorded with losses of RM2bil.
In 2021, 31,490 cases were recorded with RM2.2bil in losses.
In 2022, there were 30,536 cases reported involving losses of RM1.7bil and in 2023, the number went up to 40,350 cases involving losses of RM2.1bil.
Comm Ramli attributed it to the technology and telecommunications boom that had led to new tactics by fraudsters.
“As expected, technology developments will have an impact on the number of commercial crime cases.
“This increase in the number of cases has presented a great challenge to the CCID because throughout the last five years, the number of investigating officers has remained the same.
“If measured based on the current strength of 839 people, the ratio of investigating officers and investigation papers opened is 1:48,” he added.
