UAE Press: Caution key word in tackling cyber crimes

Social media has become a part of life. It brings with it huge advantages and has set off a knowledge explosion, knitting the entire world into a global village, an editorial in a local English language daily has said.

The editorial, in today’s edition of The Gulf Today, said, “It, however, has a flip side that is enormously worrisome. Misuse of the social media for wrong, illegal and criminal purposes by unscrupulous elements is compelling users and government authorities to stay on a 24/7 vigil to counter such activities.”

The Dubai Police deserve special praise for effectively dealing with various cyber crimes and protecting the people from malicious activities. The Dubai Police are focused on continuous development and keeping abreast of all the technological changes in the world to contribute to the prevention of exploitation by criminals for fraud or extortion of people or cheating and stealing their money, and other crimes exploited by these to deprive the rights of people.

The fact that they not only traced more than 2,920 fake social media accounts in 2018 but also took stringent measures to shut over 500 such accounts in the same year reflects the alertness of the police. More than 1,799 fraudulent accounts were reported in 2017 and 1,899 accounts in 2016.

A report by Dubai CommerCity has revealed that the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, MENASA, region’s e-commerce sector is growing at 24.6 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through to 2020.

It estimates that there was $51 billion of e-commerce sales across MENASA in 2017. The region’s e-commerce sector is growing at 24.6 per cent CAGR growth through to 2020. This is faster than any region in the world, as the global projected growth during the same period is at 20.6 per cent with a declining growth trajectory.

The UAE is among the few countries that have resolutely nurtured the huge positive potential of social media for the good of the society. The country has persistently kept pace with technology drawing kudos from the international community.

“Social media users themselves have a major role to play in ensuring security. The public should protect their accounts on social networking sites and instantly report to police any abuse they face. Celebrities are most vulnerable to crimes of plagiarism, as per police, and hence should take extra precautions,” concluded the Sharjah-based daily.