Maldives Police Service launches Cyber Crime Project

Maldives Police Service has initiated a Cyber-Crime Project earlier this year with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Two agents from the FBI, Steven Merill and Chris Son Derby, who were recently in Maldives to assist the Maldives Police Service during an investigation, said that although Maldives is not high on the list of affected countries, cyber crime is having an effect on businesses and, alarmingly, many analysts suggest that Maldivian firms are not treating it as such and are much more vulnerable than they realize.

Cyber crime is not organized crime like the Mafia, but cyber crime is getting more organized and people are more commonly dealing in stolen data and money. But where there is any interception of money, the culprits use a proxy to access the funds, so they can avoid detection by the police.

Cyber criminals often owned an illicit part of the puzzle that others wanted and they bought and sold data to each other without knowing their identities.

“Cyber criminals stay in the shadows. They are people who don’t know each other and who don’t trust each other,” says Merill.

Cyber criminals were able to steal virtual characters from online games and sell them elsewhere. There are a lot of sophisticated people out there benefiting from criminal activities on the internet. Despite the huge growth in the amount of business being conducted online, many experts suggest that organizations have been slow to realize just how vulnerable they and their customers are. “Protecting your organization from cyber crime has become a critical business imperative,” says Merill.

“Cyber criminals used to be individual hooligans showing off their prowess, but the fact that it is so profitable, so easy to do and comparatively low-risk has made cyber crime an extremely attractive felony and, as a result, it has mushroomed into a giant global industry that is unlikely to stop growing anytime soon.”

Credit card fraudsters on the rise in Maldives

Three Maldivians and a Malaysian were arrested on March 25, 2008 in connection with a series of raids in Male’ aimed at shutting down an alleged credit fraud ring suspected of bilking as much as Rf3.5 million from shops.

The raids were carried out following an investigation opened last year into complaints from local shops in Male’ that certain credit card holders were defaulting on their debts.

Police claim that over 80 forged credit cards were used to purchase expensive goods and items from several shops in Male’, each of the transactions between Rf100,000 to Rf200,000.

Police said that they had received invaluable help from Bank of Maldives and Cyprea Private Limited during the case. They had also requested assistance from the Malaysian Police and the Visa Card Centre in Singapore.

• The Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2002 mandates life sentences for hackers who recklessly endanger the lives of others.
• The CSI/FBI 2002 Computer Crime and Security Survey noted that 90% of respondents acknowledged security breaches, but only 34% reported the crimes to law enforcement agencies.
• The FBI computer crimes squad estimates that between 85% and 97% percent of computer intrusions are not even detected.

While the complications of the cyberspace threat may be hard to comprehend, it is evident that more cases need to be reported. Further, better techniques need to be developed to identify and prosecute those involved in cyber crimes.

Isn’t it time for the SAARC countries to sign a deal to create a research center to protect the alliance against cyber crime? How many counts of fraudulent use of credit cards are known in Maldives?

Image Caption: Hussain Fazeel (R) of the Maldives Police Service receiving certificate after the completion of a short course on Cyber-crime Investigation at Korea National Police University.