Cybercrime prevention bill filed

MANILA, Philippines – Two party-list lawmakers have filed a bill seeking to safeguard the privacy of individual and corporate computer users from local and international hackers.

Buhay party-list Reps. Mariano Michael Velarde Jr. and Irwin Tieng filed House Bill 3376 or the “Cybercrime Prevention Act,” which they said is needed to keep up pace with “the ever-evolving ways by which hackers use computers to break into the computer systems or network of ordinary people or private and government corporations and agencies.”

They said a “new breed of deviants, new forms of criminals and criminal activities arose such as unauthorized acquisition of vital and confidential information by third parties seeking to profit or benefit from utilization of such information.”

Violators of the proposed law face a prison term of up to 12 years, an P800,000 fine or both.