MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino has signed into law a bill to
combat cybercrime, his spokeswoman said Saturday, in a bid to stamp down on
everything from forgery to child pornography.
The bill will be a boost to
law-enforcers who have previously complained of difficulty charging people who
use the Internet to commit crimes as there were no legal codes that penalise
their acts.
Aquino's spokeswoman Abigail
Valte said the bill covered most forms of hacking, defining cybercrimes to
include "offences against the confidentiality, integrity and
availability" of a computer system, as well as gaining illegal access to
or interception of data.
The bill also defines
"computer-related offences" for forgery, fraud, identity theft,
cybersex and child pornography.
Spamming as well as
"cyber-squatting" -- the use of an Internet domain name to mislead
consumers, destroy other's reputations or prevent them from using their name --
were included in the bill.
The law also punishes libel,
Valte said, though asked if this would cover even messages sent on social
network websites such as Twitter, she added the state would "leave it up
to other lawyers to determine".
The bill also calls for the
creation of a "Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center" that
will implement the law, she said.
Valte did not say what penalties
will be imposed for different offences under the new law.
In 2000, two Filipino computer students
were accused of releasing the "ILOVEYOU" computer virus that infected
computers worldwide, destroying millions of computer files and causing millions
of dollars in damage.
However the two suspects could
not be charged because there was no law against computer hacking in the
country.
- AFP/fa
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