Read Johan Fernandez’s report today on The STAR: Malaysia welcomes the world in fight against cyber-terrorism

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who made this announcement at the closing ceremony of the 15th World Congress on IT (WCIT 2006) here on Friday said that IMPACT was not just a Malaysian concern.

“IMPACT is conceived as a partnership – between governments, as well as between governments of the world and the international private sector.

Yeah right… what are we like crusaders of a better cyber world? Oh no… wait.. we can’t be since Malaysia has one of the worst online reputations possible when it comes to credit card fraud.

Here’s from one site:

“Some countries have very bad reputations for fraud. Your bank or credit card processor can provide a list of high-risk countries. Different sources will likely have different lists of high-risk countries. High risk countries include developing nations like Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, and Eastern European countries.”

Here’s from another:

“Most of our chargebacks come from international orders. Every order we’ve ever gotten from Malaysia has been a chargeback. So it got me thinking that it might make sense not to do business with anyone coming (or appearing to come) from Malaysia anymore.”

Here’s my 2.5 cents: Stop creating all these fancy terms like “cyber-terrorism” and start correcting the fundamental flaws in this country.

Credit card fraud, low level of Internet literacy and the overall mental attitude of Malaysians need to be addresses first.

[tags] malaysia, credit card fraud, cyber, terrorism [/tags]