The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) has endorsed to Congress a landmark Anti-Cybercrime Bill, entitled “Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2008.” The Bill, which consolidates House Bill Nos. 1323, 2196, 3190 and 3249, is the outcome of an inter-agency Technical Working Group, chaired by Undersecretary Virtus V. Gil.

The proposed Anti-Cybercrime Bill defines various forms of cybercrime offenses and prescribes corresponding punishments. These offenses include hacking, identity theft, phishing, spamming, website defacement, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, malware such as the infamous ILOVEYOU virus, child pornography and cyber prostitution.

The Bill has staunch supporters from the ICT industry, as well as the country’s law enforcement agencies, who are calling for a more defined and effective anti-cybercrime framework to secure the integrity of computer and communications systems, and to protect the citizenry from rising incidents of illegal, malicious and life-threatening acts committed through the use of the Internet, mobile phones or other computer systems or networks.

In its Declaration of Policy, the Bill authorizes the State, “to adopt sufficient powers to effectively prevent and combat such offenses by facilitating their detection, investigation, and prosecution at both the domestic and international levels, and by providing arrangements for fast and reliable international cooperation.”

The Bill also mandates the creation of a National Cyber Security Office, under the CICT, whose task is to formulate and implement a national cyber security plan. Some of its functions include the preparation and implementation of appropriate measures to prevent and suppress cybercrime offenses; the monitoring of investigations of cybercrime cases; the facilitation of international cooperation on cybercrime prevention, suppression and prosecution; and the coordination of the support and participation of the business sector, local government units and non-government organizations in cybercrime prevention programs.