He was speaking during a public talk on Internet security, where awareness of cyber threats and public cooperation in dealing with any cyber-related security incidents were the main issues of concern among officials. "Nowadays, the Internet is almost a part of our everyday lives with a majority of people accessing websites daily."

"This is one of the reasons for organising such a talk, as we want to create more awareness,

Pg Hj Mohd Zain Pg Hj Abdul Razak, chairman of IET Brunei and chief executive officer of Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AiTi) also urged the need for greater public awareness on cyber threats.

"The dangers are very real and spyware programmes affect people everyday," he said, adding that the need to create more public awareness was essential to safeguard the population from any unfortunate occurrences that may happen online.

Mohd Nasir C he Embee, the manager under emergency response of MyCert, a Malaysian cyber security organisation, said that creating awareness would further prompt anyone to report any online threats.

"There's not a lot of people who are aware of the existence of cyber crimes, as well as the need for cyber laws," he said, adding that his organisation works to create a sense of security online and detect any problems on the Internet in Malaysia, as well as to be the centre to call for any cyber-related issues.

He said that Brunei has such an institution, namely BruCERT (Brunei Computer Emergency Response Team), though he added that they need to expose themselves and assist the public.

"Children nowadays immerse themselves to the Internet, as most of them have easy access to it at home, and many of them don't realise the dangers of such freedom to roam on such sites. "In Brunei, he added that the most effective way in tackling the issue of protecting children from harmful websites and any Internet-related issues was to raise awareness.

"There's no way you can control the content that is on the Internet, it's going to take you forever, so while you may try, the best way to protect children in cyberspace is by making them aware of the many dangers that they might face," he said.

Director at the CEO's Office of Cyber Security Malaysia Noor Iskandar Hashim said that cyber laws are a "tricky topic", because it involves overlapping infrastructure that needs to be developed, including criminal laws. He added that while the development of cyber laws are important, the need to create education and awareness was just as vital.

"When I hear about victims of cyber crime, two words come to mind, that is greedy and gullible," he said, adding that most crimes committed on the net occurred because most people did not know what they were getting themselves into.

"It all goes down to education, knowing what the issues are and knowing what to do when it happens."

He further said that the public needs to report any such crimes through their organisation, which could help them create statistics and understand certain patterns. This would help them to combat cyber criminals, which is something that the Bruneian organisation could work on, he said.

"Cooperation between the public and relevant authorities in Brunei is key in preventing the advent of cyber crimes," he said.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin