The Senate Committee on Science and Technology Sunday pushed for the passage of two bills that seek greater Internet security following reports of the latest cyber attacks. Sen. Edgardo Angara, chair of the committee, said Internet security should be a legislative priority of Congress to ensure that Filipinos are protected against cyber crimes such as malware invasion, phishing scams and sexual predation.
Angara made the call following reports of a new computer worm which is targeting users of popular social networking site Facebook and stolen more than 45,000 Facebook login credentials around the world.
“We are being overtaken by increasingly digital paradigms in information and communications,” explained Angara. “A large chunk of human activity nowadays is no longer merely physical—it occurs in the Internet,” he pointed out.
Thus, he said the Upper House should work on the passage of Senate Bill No. 2796 also known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act and Senate Bill No. 2965 or the Data Privacy Act.
The Cybercrime Prevention Act seeks to define the boundaries between permissible Internet activity and what can be considered as criminal. The bill also seeks to establish a Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center which main task would be to shield Filipino Internet users from fraud, theft, child pornography, and other crimes.