As the Malaysian society becomes more and more technology-savvy and Internet savvy due to the encouragement by the government and the country’s vision to be a world leading country in computer technology with the Multimedia Super Corridor, the number of computer-related crimes is on the rise. Therefore, in order to combat this new type of crime, the government of Malaysia had introduced a new legal framework to facilitate the development of ICT systems called Cyber Laws of Malaysia which include the Computer Crime Act 1997. Generally, Computer Crime Act 1997 (CCA 97) was formed for the purpose of safeguarding consumer and service providers besides on-line businesses and owners of intellectual property. It is designed to prevent offences due to the misuse of computers and complement the existing criminal legislation. The act was given its Royal Assent on June 18, 1997 but was only enforced on June 1, 2000. This Act is based on Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA 1990) which was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom and came in to force on 1 February 1991. It must be noted that Computer Crime Act 1997 has a lot of similarity with the UK Computer Misuse Act 1990 in terms of the offences but differs in several ways. The first three key crimes or offences which has been introduced in the Computer Misuse Act 1990 which are; unauthorized access to computer material, unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences and unauthorized modification of the contents of any computer are also possessed by the Computer Crimes Act 1997 but has evolved to further additional types of offences which are wrongful communication, abetments and attempts punishable as offences and presumption. Hence, the CCA 97 covers a wider range of offences compared to CMA 1990 which only covers 3 aspects of computer misuse. Furthermore, it is different in that
As the Malaysian society becomes more and more technology-savvy and Internet savvy due to the encouragement by the government and the country’s vision to be a world leading country in computer technology with the Multimedia Super Corridor, the number of computer-related crimes is on the rise. Therefore, in order to combat this new type of crime, the government of Malaysia had introduced a new legal framework to facilitate the development of ICT systems called Cyber Laws of Malaysia which include the Computer Crime Act 1997. Generally, Computer Crime Act 1997 (CCA 97) was formed for the purpose of safeguarding consumer and service providers besides on-line businesses and owners of intellectual property. It is designed to prevent offences due to the misuse of computers and complement the existing criminal legislation. The act was given its Royal Assent on June 18, 1997 but was only enforced on June 1, 2000. This Act is based on Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA 1990) which was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom and came in to force on 1 February 1991. It must be noted that Computer Crime Act 1997 has a lot of similarity with the UK Computer Misuse Act 1990 in terms of the offences but differs in several ways. The first three key crimes or offences which has been introduced in the Computer Misuse Act 1990 which are; unauthorized access to computer material, unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences and unauthorized modification of the contents of any computer are also possessed by the Computer Crimes Act 1997 but has evolved to further additional types of offences which are wrongful communication, abetments and attempts punishable as offences and presumption. Hence, the CCA 97 covers a wider range of offences compared to CMA 1990 which only covers 3 aspects of computer misuse. Furthermore, it is different in that