Local laws are not adequate to protect Malaysia from foreign cyber attacks and it should seek the cooperation globally from other governments, the minister for energy, communications and multimedia said today.

"We have cyber laws here and some individuals have already been charged under these acts, but the sources of most [cyber attacks] are from abroad so we need global cooperation in this matter," said Leo Moggie.

He was speaking to reporters after officiating the launch of Nice Executive Coach online reservation service in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Cyber laws in Malaysia include the Communications and Multimedia Act, the Digital Signature Act, the Computer Crimes Act and the Telemedicine Act.

When asked if the recent wave of virus attacks had affected government ministries, Moggie could not give specifics.

"I don't have the details but there have been attacks in the past. However, they are not serious though. I am sure these attacks will continue as there are people out there who believe doing this is their profession," Moggie said.

Internet penetration up

Two computer viruses, namely Sircam and Code Red have recently created havoc among information technology (IT) users in Malaysia. Sircam is a virus that spreads through the e-mail while the latter is capable of defacing websites and enables its perpetrator to create, remove and edit content.

Meanwhile, in Moggie's officiating speech, he lamented the fact that the percentage of computer ownership in Malaysia was still low compared with developed countries.

"However, the percentage has been rising rapidly from 760,000 computers in 1996 to 2.5 million in 2000. In terms of Internet penetration the figures rose from 0.3 percent in 1996 to seven percent in 2000 with Internet registration rising from 64,000 in 1996 to 1.6 million in 2000," he said.