There are rising technical and legal efforts to combat computer crimes in Egypt, reports Ahmed Kotb With an estimated worldwide Internet users of 1.9 billion, 18 million of whom are in Egypt, the need to secure the cyberspace is becoming more crucial. This growing number of Internet users and faster technological advances has coincided with an escalating number of cybercrimes that could be done by anyone with the know-how. Such crimes involve altering websites, stealing a computer user's bank account information, promoting child pornography, online fraud, data theft, identity theft and more. Internet-related crimes cost the global economy over $1 trillion a year. Speaking at the Second International Conference on Cybercrime and Information Security, Fouad Abdel-Qader, deputy chief of the cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) said computer crimes are dangerous because they are hard to detect and trace. "Unlike ordinary crimes, there is no crime scene in cybercrime as it could happen anywhere," he added. "Hacking programmes are easily available and easy to use," Adel Abdel-Moneim, Raya Academy's general manager, told the conference which was organised on the first two days of December by Al-Ahram Canadian University (ACU), Cairo University and National Telecommunication Institute. Abdel-Moneim stressed that awareness and education were essential to combat cybercrimes. Several efforts were actually made by many entities to increase the level of awareness of such crimes. Nevine Tawfik, director of Cyber Peace Initiative of the Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement (SMWIPM), said that among these efforts is the formation of an Internet safety focus group called NetAman which provides training to increase awareness on Internet safety. She added that SMWIPM has also launched a child Internet safety portal which gives information to online users of all ages about Internet safety. The portal can be reached on www.amanak.org. "Child pornography online is one of the fastest growing cybercrimes in the world," said Ahmed Osama, managing director of Telecom Egypt Data (TE Data). Osama stated that TE Data has launched a family Internet programme since 2008 which would block access to all child pornography content on the Internet. A router based solution which blocks websites that contain child sexual abuse images also exists through a programme called Net Clean, he added. "Cybercrime is now a basic course studied by students of police colleges," says Mahmoud El-Rashedi, director of the general administration of information at the Ministry of Interior. In spite of the absence of local computer crime legislation, the Ministry of Interior which is officially responsible for information security in Egypt is facing cybercrimes through its department of combating Internet crimes. Anyone could report cybercrimes used against him or his business to this department through the hotline 108, El-Rashedi stated. "Internet crimes are dealt with judicially by adapting the penal law to them," Fadi Habashi, president of the Commercial Court, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Habashi, who is also a member of the Egyptian Association for the Prevention of Information and Internet Crimes (EAPIIC), added that it is more efficient, however, to have a specific online crime law. "The association is working since its inception in 2005 on encouraging legislators to quickly draft the online crime law," he said. "With or without the existence of the law, aanyone could avoid cybercrimes to a great extent," Abdel-Moneim said to the Weekly. "First of all, do not deal with strangers and always make sure of the identity of the person you contact online," he said, adding that identity theft is becoming very popular among online criminals. Abdel-Moneim also says that it is safer not to share important information like credit card numbers and passwords over the Internet, and doing that over the phone instead is preferable. He also advised not to leave data on digital devices like cameras because it might be lost and misused. Such data should be stored on a hard disk instead, he said. "Only deal with trusted websites with safe payment methods while shopping online," Abdel-Moneim stressed. "Have a special Internet credit card with a limited line of credit so that the risk is minimised," he concluded.
