By Chua Hian Hou

ORGANISED crime syndicates are raking in fat profits in cyberspace, and becoming one of the biggest online menaces.

Such professional cyber gangsters are among the quickest to use new technology to, say, hijack and loot online banking or video game accounts. Some are making big bucks renting out hacking tools to aid less skilled parties in causing havoc, say security experts.

According to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) information technology security consultant Yu Chien Siang, such crime syndicates have been quick to realise the promise of cyber crimes - which can be more profitable than peddling drugs in the real world - and are swiftly 'reinventing' themselves to become high-tech hacking gangs.

Mr Yu was the keynote speaker at the 17th annual GovernmentWare infocomm security conference held at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday.

Just last month, many fans of online game Maple Story found their accounts hacked into and looted by one such hacking gang, reportedly of Chinese origin.

To guard against such threats, the Government is beefing up cyber security here. The three-day GovernmentWare event, which is expected to attract over 600 infocomm security professionals, is one effort to raise awareness and equip Singapore professionals with the knowledge and tools to counter such threats.

Topics covered include new cyber threats, developments in fingerprint and facial-recognition technology as well as wireless security.

The MHA has also matchmade tech giant Microsoft with the Singapore Management University to improve the quality of infocomm security education here.

Beginning next January, a module on computer forensics will help infocomm undergraduates understand ways of tackling a security breach.

Governments and companies that fail to fend off these cyber attacks will pay a terrible price, said Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee, who was the guest of honour at yesterday's event.

If critical government information infrastructure like Singapore's SingPass authentication system is breached, the effects could be disastrous, he said. SingPass is the login system used to access important government electronic services.

Hackers and cyber gangsters have already wrought havoc overseas, said Professor Ho, citing the example of the Georgian cyber war of two months ago.

When Russian tanks rolled into Georgia in early August, a shadowy army of Russian computer hackers hammered at Georgian government websites in an effort to crash them.

And the launch of the Apple iPhone last year was 'rapidly followed by attacks that exploited its vulnerabilities...the very innovation which is used to improve our lives can also be used by cyber attackers in a disastrous way,' said Prof Ho.

On the flip side, he said, governments and companies that can handle security well stand to reap significant economic benefits.

For instance, a 'secured cyber nation will have a comparative advantage in attracting foreign investments'.

Companies, said the MHA's Mr Yu, will also be able to introduce new and more efficient business, for example, allowing their employees to work from home or accepting electronic documents instead of physical ones.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on October 08, 2008.