A senior official from the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has suggested that residents across Qatar should keep important information away from online applications by storing them on CDs, flash drives or external hard drives.

Colonel Ali Hassan al-Kubaisi, head of the economic crimes prevention section at the Criminal Investigation Department of MoI, explained that the modern electronic crimes have come to be a great challenge for the entities concerned in the county due to the international nature of the crime, as reported by the Gulf Times.

The advisory has come in the wake of the growing challenge posed by cyber criminals, many of whom are based abroad and thus out of the jurisdiction of the local law enforcing authorities.

He added that cyber criminals have made ‘great advancements’ in their modus operandi which make it difficult for the ordinary people to escape their attacks – the most common of all being blackmailing and fraudulent activities.

According to al-Kubaisi, such crimes are witnessing an increasing trend due to the rapidly developing technology, as criminals quickly adapt their styles and methods with such development.

In this regard, the official noted that a Law No 14 for 2014 has been issued which has provisions to fight most forms of online crimes and provide for strict penalties for each category of such criminal action.

He advised people not to trust online applications to keep vital information pertaining to bank accounts, as these can be easily infiltrated by hackers, however good the protection software might be.

Any person who might be engaged in blackmailing and threatening would face three years jail term and be levied a fine of QR100,000.

Similarly, sexual abuse of children online and production or circulation of child pornography involves a jail term of up to five years and a maximum fine of upto QR500,000.