Mimos, German institute to jointly tackle cybercrime
Date: August 12, 2008Source: thestar.com.my
Mimos Information Security Cluster head Prof Dr Mohamed Ridza Wahiddin said the number of cases reported of such invasions of corporate networks was only the “tip of the iceberg.”
“Phishing, pharming, virus attacks and hacking of systems belonging to companies is no longer done for fun or curiosity but is now big business, as there is money to made from such invasions.
“At the same time, the public and companies both often lose large sums of money as a result of fraud committed by people who are difficult to trace,” he told reporters after the launch of the Second Asia Pacific Trusted Infrastructure Summer School here on Monday.
Phishing is the attempt to fraudulently acquire information such as usernames, passwords, bank account or credit card details by posing as a known company or establishment.
Pharming is the attempt to redirect Internet traffic to a fake website where such personal details above are recorded and used for fraudulent purposes.
Prof Mohamed Ridza said corporate firewalls, which act as the first line of defence, and anti-virus programmes were often useless against phishing and pharming, and there was a need to explore other methods, such as the use of specialised hardware that could block such attacks.
“We now need to make sure that they can offer protection for all types of invasions,” he added.
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