Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysia's IT research company Mimos is to begin joint research with Germany's Ruhr-University Bochum in efforts to tackle cybercrime, a news report said Tuesday.

Both parties had recently signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct joint research into a hardware that could block security invasions on the internet, The Star newspaper's online news portal said.

"Phishing, pharming, virus attacks and hacking of systems belonging to companies is no longer done for fun or curiosity but is now big business, as there is money to made from such invasions," Mohamed Ridza Wahiddin, head of Mimos' Information Security Cluster, was quoted as saying.

Phishing is the term used to describe attempts to fraudulently acquire information such as usernames, passwords, bank account or credit card details by posing as a known company or establishment.

Pharming is the attempt to redirect Internet traffic to a fake website where personal details are then used for fraudulent purposes.

Mohamed Ridza said corporate firewalls, which act as the first line of defence, and anti-virus programmes were often useless against phishing and pharming.

He said the research efforts with Ruhr-University would include the exploration of other methods of defence, such as the use of specialised hardware that could block such attacks. (dpa)