Cybercrime on the rise in Maldives

Haveeru Online recently reported about a gang led by a 16 year old blackmailing (cyber bullying) senior government officials, MPS and teenage girls online into paying money. According to the report, this has been ongoing for the past five months. The gang from S. Hithadhoo are already under investigation and is believed to be well versed in IT. This comes with no surprise since Internet is widely accessible from anywhere in the country, its just a matter of few clicks to get a hold of the right tools and information required. And with social networking so widespread regardless of age, we often forget that the Internet is public and should think twice before posting personal photos or videos.

This not the first time that we are hearing about cybercrime in Maldives. Recently there was the DDOS attack on Dhiraagu servers and also others in the recent past. Not to mention the many incidents that were not reported. However, this is the first time that a case of cyber bullying has bee reported in the media.