‘Many Saudis do not report cyber crimes’

JEDDAH: Saudis generally do not complain when they fall victims to cyber crimes.

“Most of the Saudis whose e-mails are hacked prefer to open a new e-mail instead of reporting the matter to the police,” Director of IT Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Muhyuddin Hakami told Arab News on Saturday. A chamber member recently complained his e-mail was hacked and messages were sent from it without his knowledge.

“In the absence of any data on the size of cyber crimes in the Kingdom, the IT Committee has asked the Commission of Information Technology and Communications (CITC) for precise statistics on cyber crimes in the Kingdom. Studies on cyber crimes available outside the country rate Saudi Arabia among countries where the crimes are not widespread.

Hakami said the IT Committee used to mediate between traders and their customers, mostly between sellers of computer software and hardware and their customers.

“Recently the committee had to settle a dispute between a buyer of a computer and its seller. The complaint was that the buyer later found that the computer did not have the special features he demanded and which were mentioned in the purchase bill,” Hakami said. “We in the chamber play also the role of enlightenment among the members about cyber crimes. We aim to have a greater role in fighting cyber crimes as our IT Committee is the leading agency representing the private sector. We plan to enlighten the chamber members about the latest solutions to cyber crimes.”

He observed that cyber crimes were growing rapidly across the world forcing many countries to enact new laws to regulate the use of the Internet. In 2007 the Kingdom introduced laws to combat informatics crimes. The punishments start from prison time of not more one year and a fine of not more than SR500,000 to jail time of up to 10 years and a fine of not more than SR5 million.

The CITC has lately beefed up awareness campaigns against indiscrete exposure to Internet, which would lead to erosion of moral values and harm to children.