SEGi College Penang’s School of Information Technology organised a competition called Crack the Code on 21 October 2022 to respond to the increasing number of scam cases reported.
It aimed to create an awareness of the importance of cybersecurity to protect individuals and organisations from cyber-attacks resulting from data breaches and to create a fun learning experience for the college’s IT students.
Scammers use various IT methods, such as SMS phishing or sloshing, to trick users into transferring their money into illegitimate bank accounts. According to the Royal Malaysia Police’s (PDRM) Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID), 71,833 scams amounting to more than RM5.2 billion in losses were reported from 2020 until May 2022. Of the total scams, 48,850 or 68% were online scams, of which 26,213 cases were prosecuted in court.
In the competition, the participants were presented with a scam scenario and had the task of figuring out who the culprit was. It was officiated by SEGi College Penang’s Principal, Cheah Gaik Chiam, who gave a speech emphasising the importance of cyber security and played the opening video, led by Mr Shahidh and supported by the other SEGi College Penang’s IT lecturers (Mr Eric, Pn Siti, Pn Rosmah, Mr Zulkifli and Mr Amizar). The participants were twelve five-person groups of SEGi College students and students from Bukit Mertajam High School.
Before the event, several videos and quizzes were created and played around SEGi, and those who answered the quizzes correctly were given a prize. The Bachelor won the competition in the Computing programme group comprising Hor Kah Chun, Senneth Ho, Phuah Tze Yuan, Neoh Wei Jun and Yeoh Jia Bao. They won the prize of RM200 for being the first group to submit the final correct answer. A consolation prize of RM100 was given to the group from Bukit Mertajam High School.
SEGi College Penang’s School of Information and Technology hopes to make this an annual event.
