Local (Malaysian Technology) News is kept brief this weekend with TechCentral reporting on the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) shutting down a total of 11 websites this year so far for contravening rules and regulations concerning the publication of information on the internet.

If only someone had told us (or them) what is what that we can and cannot do on our own websites, perhaps that could have solved a problem or two, and with that said, we went on the search to find out if we could find out what we can and cannot do…

A quick Google search for MCMC brought us directly to their homepage, from where we first made an effort to ignore just how badly the site needs a redesign or two, and then figured we should click on "THE LAW", which brought-up a list of over 100 PDFs that can be downloaded in either English or Bahasa Melayu. It took a fair amount of time to figure out which of those links actually provided us with these rules.

In total, there are presently 39 Regulations in place, each with pages and pages of explanations that make very little sense as to exactly what it is we can and cannot do with our websites…

Energy, Water and Communications Deputy Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said two cases have also been brought to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for action. He added the Government could take action under Section 211 and 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 against owners, operators or writers of websites who misused the Internet to spread slanderous comments, insulting the country’s leaders, religious sensitivities and race. Those who broke the law could be slapped with a RM50,000 fine, one year’s jail or both.

In other news, TechCentral also reports on Malaysia having a fairly low rate of bot-infected PCs, which is kind of hard to imagine considering we account for 80% of the world’s SPAM distribution.

Malaysia is sixth on a list of Asia Pacific countries that have reported bot-infected computers, revealed Symantec Corp’s latest biannual Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR).  The survey showed that only 1% of computers in the country had been infected during the six-month period from January to June.  China reportedly had the highest number of bot infections in the region (78%), followed by Taiwan (7%), South Korea (5%), Japan (2%) and Australia (2%).  Symantec said it has also found a drop in the number of bot infection cases in the region; from 19,095 per day to 15,447 (about 19%).  However, computer users should not let their guard down. Home users are still the most at risk, said Symantec.