Dubai: The UAE is holding its own against hackers amid an explosion of cybercrime and epic computer hacking cases around the globe in the last couple of years, Major General Khamis Al Mazaina said.
Al Mazaina, in his presentation on Tuesday to the Seventh International Conference on Interpol for Middle East and North Africa in Dubai, said Dubai Police have made great strides on the cybercrime front after setting up a dedicated department to solve high-tech crimes.
He told delegates at the conference — hosted by Dubai Police Officers Club — that cybercrime has reached far and wide globally.
“Crimes are a main threat to the security and safety of countries and it is the role of police to protect societies,” he said.
He said cybercrimes have become more complicated and police need to be updated with latest technology in order to tackle such crimes.
“While the global internet network can be used or misused to transfer money within seconds across the world, the same technology can also be used to send or receive money from extortion rackets,” he said.
Almost 700 cybercrimes were reported to Dubai Police in 2012, said Al Mazaina.
The first reported cybercrime in Dubai was recorded in 1990 when a woman complained she was being harassed online.
“The first cybercrime was a case reported by a woman that someone was threatening to post her photos on the internet,” he said.
Like many other police services around the globe at a time when the internet was still in its relative infancy, Dubai police were not familiar with such kind of crimes.
“We asked the help of an IT student at the university and we were able to arrest the criminal who turned out to be an IT US university graduate. He used to work for a petrol company here,” he said. “After one month from this crime, police decided to establish the electronic crimes department.”
Al Mazaina said Dubai police quickly familiarised themselves with the world wide web and soon learned to solve such crimes. Police soon arrested a man who blackmailed women by hacking into their e-mail accounts and stealing their pictures.
“A gang in Spain used to transfer money from the exchange company after hacking the system of this company,” he said.
He said a woman who worked for the company while she was away during lunch break noticed that the mouse cursor of her computer was moving by itself.
“The company reported the case to police who were able to solve the case,” he said.
Lt Colonel Saeed Al Hajri, Director of the Electronic Crimes of Dubai Police Criminal And Investigation Department, said the department was trying to raise awareness of cybercrimes like forgery, and crimes involving credit cards.
Al Hajri said cybercrimes in the UAE are mainly defamation, extortion and financial fraud using the internet. This is in addition to crimes that contravene Islamic and Arabic culture.
Al Hajiri said most of the cases that take place locally are sorted out.
“Some cybercrimes that took place here but are connected with cybercrimes in other countries are still investigated,” he said.
“The cybercrime that transcends man-made boundaries has brought upon law enforcing agencies the dire need to cooperate globally to prevent and solve such crimes,” said Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Director of CID at Dubai Police.
Representatives from different countries are sharing their insights and experiences at the two-day conference.
