Cyber Security Policy: Review on Netizen Awareness and Laws

Law is one of the government policies created for the good of the state. The law is believed to control and regulate society. However, in the name of freedom many dislike it. In the context of the Internet, cyber laws are created to ensure netizens use cyber space well and prudently. Among the steps to address cyber threats is through cyber law enforcement. However, netizens are still unaware of the existence of cyber law and the increasing number of cyber crime cases in each year. Hence, this study aimed to uncover the informant's awareness on the existence of cyber laws and analysed the implementation of the law on cyber security threats in Malaysia. Qualitative methodology i.e. focus group, in depth interview and document analysis are used to get quality research data. The number of focus group informants is 35 Internet users while the number of in-depth interviewer is 6 people. Among the main documents analysed in this study are the legislation, annual reports, media releases and others. The findings suggest that focus group informants are unaware of the existence of cyber laws because they feel it least important, as well as informants are less sensitive and not practicing it. Document analysis results also found that several cyber laws could be used to address cyber threats such as the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, Computer Crimes Act 1997, Electronic Trade Act 2006, Personal Data Protection Act 2010 and Consumer Protection Act 1999 (Amendment 2010).