To spy or not to spy on citizens? That’s the question
Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for network security solutions company F-Secure Corp, believes the end does not justify the means. But he admits that there is no clear answer.
“It's a problematic subject. As long as technology is used to catch drug smugglers or terrorists, that's great.
“But when a government places a trojan on the computer of an innocent person, it is a horrible wrongdoing,”
he said recently.
He was in Kuala Lumpur for a meeting at F-Secure's network security monitoring centre in Bangsar South, which covers the Asian region.
The problem has been compounded in recent times because terrorists and so-called “hacktivists” have no qualms about launching cyber attacks against governments and others.
So why shouldn't governments resort “to fighting fire with fire”?
Hypponen said it was a question for each government to mull over because there was no one-size-fits-all solution.
He cited Germany as an example where a government-backed trojan program was set loose on public networks.
Controversy arose in Germany in October last year after a hacker group highlighted what it claimed was a government trojan program to spy on people, Hypponen said.
The program, apparently deployed to help law enforcement agencies, could record Skype calls, monitor online messages, log keystrokes on a computer and even take pictures of the screen.
Hypponen said he was glad to note that such trojan programs had not been deployed in Malaysia.
Last year, Hypponen tweeted about the Anonymous hacker group's threat to attack government websites in Malaysia, which later happened.
Bagi pendapat saya, kerajaan ataupun mana-mana pihak tidak berhak untuk mengintip aktiviti internet rakyat kerana ini melanggar privasi mereka. Semoga hak rakyat akan dihormati.
BalasPadamperkara seperti ini tak wajar berlaku kerana ia adalah privasi orang.
PadamGovernment should respect the people privacy.
PadamSilap2 laman web kerajaan akan digodam kalau ada pihak yang tidak berpuas hati.
PadamNasib baik buat masa ini Malaysia belum berlakunya perkara seperti ini. Harap tindakan macam ini tidak akan terjadi ke atas rakyat kita.
BalasPadamWhat matters the most is maximum security in the country.
BalasPadamThe government should come up with better program to deal with the hacktivists.
BalasPadamI support whatever ways for the government to maximize the security in the country just as long as it doesn't include violating the people's privacy.
PadamThose who are threat to the nation should be fetched out.
BalasPadamI believe the government knows how to go about this.
BalasPadamSomething should be done to protect the nation/people online from cyber-attack.
BalasPadamThe people will definitely disapprove of having "trojan horse" programs or other computer hacking tools to spy on them because its violate their privacy.
BalasPadamProteksi harus ada limitnya, tidak sehingga mengancam kebebasan rakyat.
BalasPadamTidak perlulah mengintip aktiviti internet yang dilakukan oleh rakyat. cukup dengan undang2 yang dikenakan terhadap mereka yang salahguna ruang siber seperti akta jenayah siber.
BalasPadamAktiviti yang meragukan tu yang patut dikesan dan dipantau.
BalasPadamKita tidak pasti adakah salah atau tidak cara sebegini. tapi setiap orang ada privasi sendiri.
BalasPadamhilanglah kebebasan di negara ini jika kerajaan mahu ambil tahu semua perkara tentang rakyat termasuk hal2 peribadi..
BalasPadamUp until the 11th of June 2011, Internet content was officially uncensored, and civil liberties assured, though on numerous occasions the government has been accused of filtering politically sensitive sites.
BalasPadamAny act that curbs internet freedom is theoretically contrary to the Multimedia Act signed by the government of Malaysia in the 1990s.
BalasPadamHowever, pervasive state controls on traditional media spill over to the Internet at times, leading to self-censorship and reports that the state investigates and harasses bloggers and cyber-dissidents.
BalasPadamThe OpenNet Initiative found no evidence of Internet filtering in Malaysia in the political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools areas in May 2007, and is on the Reporters Without Borders 2011 list of countries under surveillance.
BalasPadamPrime Ministers Abdullah Badawi and Najib Razak, on many occasions, have pledged that Internet access in Malaysia will not be censored and that it is up to parents to install their own censorship software and provide education to their children (provide self-censorship).
BalasPadamThe ISPs also actively deny that there are Internet filters in place when asked. However, the Communications Minister has occasionally announced that they are working on a nationwide filter, but each time such an announcement is made the Prime Minister makes a rebuttal to emphasize that there will be no Internet censorship.
BalasPadamThe state ministries of Terengganu and Kelantan have also announced that they have statewide filters in place in their respective states.
BalasPadamIn 2006 Deputy Science and Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha announced that all Malaysian news blogs will have to be registered with the Ministry of Information. He justified this by stating the law was necessary to dissuade bloggers from promoting disorder in Malaysia's multi-ethnic society.
BalasPadamThe web page faithfreedom.org, which expresses a critical view on Islam, is blocked in Malaysia (December 2010). In April 2011, Prime Minister Najib Razak repeated promises that Malaysia will never censor the Internet.
BalasPadamWikiLeaks, the popular whistle-blowing site, has also been blocked by the Malaysian ISPs. Trying to access countries under categories brings a 'Link is Broken' error message for the user.
BalasPadamHowever, in June 2011, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ordered the blocking of several websites including The Pirate Bay and several file-hosting websites, as well as peer-to-peer traffic, via a letter dated 30 May to all Malaysian ISPs for violating Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987, which deals with pirated content.
BalasPadamThey later tried to add various other thinly-disguised excuses to justify the blockage, including accusing said sites of harboring viruses, and kept insisting that it is not censoring the internet despite said action being indeed internet censorship. Nevertheless, this led to the creation of a new Facebook page, "1M Malaysians Don't Want SKMM Block File Sharing Website" which gained many Likes.
BalasPadamThe blockage has had various negative consequences in the country. News of the censorship spread around, prompting hacker group Anonymous to launch a DDoS attack codenamed "Operation Malaysia".
BalasPadamOnly minor disturbance of several government websites were observed although most were due to the servers being shut down in anticipation of the attack.
BalasPadamThis action can be considered as a public outcry towards the pledge of the government that the Internet will not be censored since most of the hackers were Malaysian.
BalasPadam