Banks in the Kingdom have sustained losses of $1 billion over the past two years because of electronic crimes, Dr. Jibril Al-Araishi, member of the Shoura Council and Deputy Chairman of the Transportation, Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee, said here at the weekend. “The year 2012 will be the year of e-crimes,” he added. His revelation coincided with calls at World Economic Forum in Davos for international action to snuff out cyber crime. Officials and business leaders warned that criminals move at Internet speed while countries drag their feet. “Many countries don't have laws to criminalize cyber crime, they don't have means and tools to investigate, to share information,” said Yury Fedotov, who heads the United Nations office on drugs and crime. Cyber crime is “interconnected in terms of crime, but not interconnected in collaboration” against it, he added, noting that there is not even an agreement on what constitutes cybercrime. According to Kaspersky Company's classification, the Kingdom is a country with a high risk of being a victim of e-crimes, Dr. Al-Araishi pointed out. There are over a million hackers or e-criminals in the Kingdom, he said. Kaspersky Lab is a Russian computer security company, co-founded by Natalia Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997 Dr. Al-Araishi is finalizing a law on personal information protection which will be discussed by the Shoura Council and then sent to King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. He said the law seeks to address the lack of regulations to fight cyber crimes. Absence of proper rules and regulations to combat cyber crimes have caused the Kingdom to sustain great losses, he added, claiming that although the current laws envisage deterring penalties, they need to be enforced strictly. Cyber crimes in the Kingdom range from stealing information about credit cards and blackmailing their owners to illegally accessing certain websites to destroy them, Dr. Al-Araishi explained. The Kingdom has a cyber crime law which was issued in 2007 and it's a good law but needs to be amended to keep up with new cyber crimes and impose deterring penalties on violators, he added. “The law needs to be amended every time a new type of cyber crime comes to light.” Most cyber crimes or attacks that take place in the Kingdom are launched from Internet cafes in public places and it is difficult to track down perpetrators because most of them use a proxy to hide their identity, the Shoura Council member said. The amended law will provide protection and justice to all members of society, which is the main goal of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, he said. __
