With recent rise in cyber crime activities, strong measures are being taken by the authorities whether state level or organizational level, to thwart the malevolent intentions of hackers.
As much as it is essential to take proper precautionary measures, it is also vital to implement severe penalties and punishments for such acts to minimize such crimes.
Philippine’s House of Representatives recently decided to allow lifetime imprisonment for hacking if a person is found guilty of hacking into a bank systems. According to this new judgment, such a move will be considered an attempt to sabotage the economy, a crime that demands lifetime imprisonment.
The house Bill No # 6710, that was unanimously approved on 3rd and final reading with a vote count of 224, would also allot this penalty for crimes which involved more than fifty automated teller machine cards.
The Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998 would also be updated under this bill with the inclusion of the activities such as skimming of the ATM cards and hacking of banking systems.
The passed bill defined ‘hacking’ as interference or an unauthorized access into information and communication system or a computer system/server. Such activities results in the corruption, alteration, manipulation, theft, destruction or loss of electronic data.
Similarly, skimming was defined as a form of fraud in which a victim’s ATM card is compromised by using a card reader, which mostly can be camouflaged to look like a part of the Automated Teller Machine and which functions to store the user’s card number along with the PIN code.
Ramon Durano VI (Cebu, 5th Dist.) and Ben Evardone (Eastern Samar) were the representatives who were responsible for sponsoring the proposed bill.
The passed bill would also increase the sentences for violations of the Access Devices law throughout the board.
The governments are hopeful that this life imprisonment for hacking law would deter hackers and we would see reduced number of crimes now.
