COMPUTER CRIMES BETWEEN 1988 TO 1992

Dr Toh Keng Kiat asked the Minister for Home Affairs if he will state:

(i) the number of computer crime offenders who were prosecuted from 1988 to 1992,

(ii) the nature of their offences,

(iii)the sums of money involved in corporate cases, and

(iv) in how many cases were the prosecutions for offences under the Official Secrets Act.

Prof. S. Jayakumar: (i) During the period from 1988 to 1992, 4 computer crime offenders were prosecuted. One of these cases is still awaiting trial.

(ii) The 3 cases that had been dealt with by the courts are described as follows:

Case 1: A bank teller misappropriated about $467,000 belonging to the bank and tampered with the accounting entries in the bank's computer system to conceal the offence.

Case 2: A bank's computer system operator gained unauthorised access into the bank's computer system and fraudulently transfered over $9,000 to accounts of his friends.

Case 3: An employee of a company, which acted as a registrar of public-listed companies, misused the company's computerised share registration system and created a share certificate with a value of over $13,000 in his own name. He pledged the share certificate with a finance company to secure a loan.

In the 4th case which is pending, a bank's system analyst allegedly stole a password or used one assigned to him to unlawfully access the computerised lucky draw software programmes of the bank and amended them to enable 5 account holders whom he favoured to win prizes.

(iii)In the 4 cases, the total amount involved was about $985,000.

(iv) In all these cases, the accused were charged or being charged under the Penal Code.