The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is finding it harder to combat cybercrimes due to the continuous rise of highly-sophisticated techniques used by cyber criminals, a local official says.
Khamis Al-Qahtani, chief of the administration development at the Commission of Investigation and Prosecution (CIP), said in a report by local newspaper Saudi Gazette this week, that it was "close to impossible to completely eliminate fast-developing techniques of cybercrime".
Al-Qahtani added that these techniques made it difficult to gather evidence against cybercriminals that operate "the most sophisticated stealth malware and botnets".
The Saudi official said authorities are having a tough time, particularly, in the definition and identification of cybercrime methods. Cybercriminals in the Kingdom current use a small number of network and hosting service providers "that supply the infrastructure needed to host drive-by download exploits, command-and-control servers, stolen data drop sites, and other more functional network needs".
The official added that cybercrime laws in Saudi Arabi only offers basic legal measures and lack details of technical and procedural measures, making it difficult to prosecute cybercriminals.
The Kingdom recently conducted a study on local cybercrime activities and found that cybercriminals were typically 13 years old to 38 years old, and were educated, non-violent and sociable.
The study further said local cybercriminals were "mainly motivated by curiosity", though there were cases of online criminal activities that include data theft and e-mail hacking.
According to Al-Qahtani, government efforts are underway to address the growing threat of cybercrime in the country. The major focus of these efforts will include information dissemination not only in the government sector, but also in schools across the Kingdom, he said.
Joel D. Pinaroc is a Filipino freelance IT writer currently based in Saudi Arabia.
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