US deploys legal adviser to Malaysia to fight cybercrime

The recent arrest of a Kosovan hacker in Malaysia is a direct result of a new effort by the United States Justice Department (USJD), the New Zealand Herald reports.

In a move to expand its efforts against cybercrime, the US Justice Department has for the first time placed a legal adviser in Malaysia to help ensure Southeast Asian countries have the laws and tools to fight hackers.

The US hopes to boost the fight against criminal activity that transcends geographic borders, most times done by hackers based overseas, and who are able to avoid prosecution under US law.

US officials said they faced obstacles in locating, extraditing and convicting overseas hackers, hence the need to ensure the cybercrime laws in other countries match up to those of the US.

According to the Herald, experts said that stronger foreign cybercrime laws were essential if other countries hoped to address the problem.

The position of legal adviser in Malaysia is under the purview of the US State Department, which is the American equivalent to the foreign affairs ministry.

The placement is on a trial basis for one year, and will be used as benchmark for the role to be replicated in other parts of the world if it is successful here.

"It is a region of the world where there is a high level of sophistication with technology" where cyber criminals can set up 'and prey on others in the world'," the head of the Justice Department's criminal division, assistant attorney-general Leslie Caldwell was quoted as telling The Associated Press in an interview.

The US Justice Department had on Tuesday released a statement that Kosovan citizen Ardit Ferizi was detained in Malaysia on a US provisional arrest warrant for committing computer hacking and identity theft violations in conjunction with the theft and release of personally identifiable information of US service members and federal employees, to a terrorist organisation, namely Isis.

John Carlin, the Justice Department's top national security official, had called the case "the first of its kind".

According to the NZ Herald, the new post in Malaysia is occupied by Thomas Dougherty, who spent many years as a Justice Department computer crimes prosecutor.