Computer crimes from Islamic perspective and the role of secure software practices to mitigate them

Rapid growths of computers, mobile phones and Internet technology have created ways for irresponsible people to perform computer crimes. Millions of users across the globe have fallen as victims to computer crimes, including Malaysia. It is due to current software environment which is more complex, distributed, keeps confidential data and easily exposed to malicious attacks. Nevertheless, computer crime is a big sin from the perspective of Islam.It has bad impact on the humanity and growth of any nation. Since the last couple of years most researchers believe that security activities should be considered from the beginning of the software development and continuous in all phases, rather than having it as a sub-segment when developing software. However, based on previous studies, the implementation of these security activities among software practitioners is still limited. This might be because they are not aware on the importance of those activities in producing Shariah compliant software products. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to highlight that computer crime is haram from the perspective of Islam, prohibited by Allah s.w.t. and must be avoided by each Muslim individu.Also, this study aims to disclose the secure software practices that need to be implemented when developing software in order to mitigate the computer crimes. The study is conducted by using descriptive approach for elaborating the computer crimes from Islamic perspective as well as the secure software practices.Additionally, the deductive approach is used to identify and classify the secure software practices based on the phases of software process. This study contributes in providing awareness and guideline for software practitioners towards producing software products that are Shariah compliant which indirectly will control the computer crimes