• 2 months ago
The legal process must be simplified to make it easier for victims of online crimes to seek justice, says Gobind Singh Deo.

Speaking at the International Legal Conference on Online Harms 2024 on Friday (Sept 6), the Digital Minister said the current laws were archaic and have not been amended in tandem with the rapid technological advancements to deal with faceless and borderless online crimes.
 
Gobind Singh Deo also advocated for the development of an integrated online platform to streamline efforts across various agencies and bolster Malaysia's cybersecurity and personal data protection framework.

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Transcript
00:00When we speak about technology, we speak about the benefits that it provides us.
00:05But on the other side of the coin are risks.
00:09Technology empowers good people and bad people.
00:16So as we go along, we've got to understand that first we are dealing with technology that changes at great speed.
00:24As I said to you, from 2018 to 2024, we have seen a significant shift in the way people do things using technology.
00:31We have seen a significant change towards digitalisation, the transformation that we speak about.
00:37We have seen governments emphasise on how it is its people must transform, transit, change,
00:44so that they can keep up with the times and of course compete regionally and ultimately globally.
00:51Just in a period of 7 years, 8 years.
00:55But we now rely on legal systems that have been built over 50 years, 100 years.
01:05We have the Penal Code, we have the Federal Constitution, which form provisions of law that deal with crime.
01:17These are provisions of law that were created a long time ago.
01:21The question is, are these laws up to date with technology?
01:26Do these laws provide for new types of crime that we see today and that we will see moving ahead?
01:34Are the laws that we currently have sufficient for that purpose?
01:37When you go to lodge a report, who do you complain to?
01:41And after you complain, what happens next?
01:44Do we not have a system that is friendly to people who have complaints to make,
01:49that is easy to understand, that is efficient and that delivers justice swiftly?
01:55You and I know a lot of people, they stay away from legal systems sometimes because of the complexity involved.
02:04People don't want to get involved.
02:05People say, it's hard to go to the police station, you have to bring a statement, the police will arrest you and so on.
02:12Sometimes this happens because the system that we have makes it overly difficult for people to reach out to the enforcement agencies
02:22so that their complaints can be dealt with.
02:24So when we say it's related to a method, how can we change the existing laws so that we can simplify the process?
02:36I don't want it to be done, then it will be done.
02:38It will not be taken away.
02:40In the near future, we will see the impact.
02:43And I think when we look at the kind of scams, the kind of abuse that we see today,
02:49there are different clusters that we have to look at.
02:52Different categories of people that we have to focus on.
02:56You have crimes that deal with sexual offences.
03:02You have crimes which relate to children.
03:06You have crime that relates to the vulnerable.
03:11You have crime that at the end of the day deals with the three R's, like Wai Wikula said earlier,
03:19which all need to be looked at differently.
03:33I think what we need to do is understand that as technology develops,
03:37you are going to find a lot of crimes happening online,
03:41as a result of which we need to start to shift the way we think about how we approach procedural requirements when it comes to investigations.
03:51So one of the things that we have been discussing at my ministry
03:55is about whether or not we can develop a more efficient system by which complaints can be made,
04:03investigations carried out, and of course ultimately action taken.
04:07But this is still at discussion stage.
04:09I think it is something we need to look at as we go along.
04:12We are going to find that things are going to move a lot faster.
04:15There is going to be a lot more complaints coming in because of the nature of things,
04:20and the scale at which people will be transacting online is going to be something that we need to think about.
04:27So if we operate as we have traditionally, where there is a need for you to physically appear to make complaints,
04:34lodge complaints, investigations will take place and all that,
04:37I think that may be a system that may not be very efficient.
04:43So the question is how do you improve efficiency?
04:45How do you create an ecosystem that enables more efficient investigations
04:52and of course action taken a lot faster when cases like this, cases online occur.
05:06Not necessarily.
05:07I think at the end of the day you must understand that the law is broken up into different segments.
05:11Number one, where an incident occurs, then there is a mechanism for which a complaint can be made.
05:19And of course they call this complaint normally the police report.
05:24And after a police report is lodged, then the IP is open,
05:28as a result of which an investigating officer is assigned to the file.
05:35He looks at the facts and then he decides on the facts, preliminary facts, what the nature of the offence is.
05:42And then he will get a team together that will investigate that.
05:45The team will then call in people for the purpose of taking statements.
05:48They will make arrests. They will also look for evidence.
05:52They may have to go into premises to get items.
05:56They may have to go online to take down what they call postings or what have you not.
06:03There is a whole series of things that occur, that unfold in an investigation.
06:08So the question is how much of this can you make more efficient using what you call online methods.
06:13And that is something that I think we need to look at.
06:15The question of course would be not just how you can transform it,
06:19but also how you can ensure that the areas of admissibility is dealt with.
06:26Because you want to make sure that once you adopt these new measures,
06:30then these new measures are measures that are admissible in court.
06:34Because ultimately if it goes to court, then you need to use the findings from this investigation in court.
06:42You talked about legal recourse and complexity.
06:47You might have all the legislations in place, but what is the government doing to treat?
06:55Because the main problem is when it reaches the police, when it reaches the agency,
07:00what is the government's effort to train personnel on the ground,
07:05the police and of course the agency members who know them,
07:09with regard to sensitising them and educating them on online methods?
07:25We are currently trying to scale what we call operations.
07:29In other words, we recognise the fact that there is a need for us to increase the amount of personnel.
07:35We recognise the fact that there is a need for us to look at how we can train more officers,
07:39particularly the complexities of the law that exist today
07:42and also the complexity of crime when it comes to cyber crimes.
07:46So those are areas that we are looking at and we are going to put up suggestions to the Cabinet on this,
07:51hopefully by the end of this year.
07:53My team is already working on it.
07:55Hopefully we will be able to see some developments on that soon.
08:01It is in this conversation that the whole discussion about how we can make things more efficient has arisen.
08:07It is when you discuss this, questions have been put to us as to whether or not you can,
08:11instead of having physical officers dealing with certain things,
08:13whether online mechanisms will allow things to be done a lot faster and how we can achieve that.
08:21So yes, you are right, there is a need for us to look at,
08:23again it comes back to us recognising the fact that things are going to move a lot quicker as we go along
08:28and a lot more people are going to adopt technology and they are going to use online services and facilities.
08:33In that context, you are going to see more problems, you are going to see a need for more investigations,
08:38more probes and we will need to have not just personnel but also new approaches to solve the problem.
08:48For example, as I said earlier, looking at how we can develop online mechanisms
08:53so that you can escalate and make investigations a lot easier and more efficient.

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