INTERNET SECURITY SHOULD BE LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY -ANGARA

Senator Edgardo J. Angara urged his colleagues to support the passage of two important measures that will ensure greater Internet security for Filipinos following reports of massive cyber attacks including malware invastion, phising scams and sexual predation.

"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."

Last year, the veteran lawmaker filed two bills namely, Senate Bill No. 2796 or 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. Part of the bill's provisions is the establishment of a Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center which will be charged with protecting Filipino Internet users from fraud, theft, child pornography, and other crimes.

The Data Privacy Act, on the other hand, will establish regulations that meets global standards as prescribed by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). It will require Filipino companies to adhere to international security standards in order to make the country's information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry more secure and thus more attractive to foreign investors.

"Crime and harm are thus no longer merely physical--they can occur online as well. There is a need for us to innovate security measures and enact laws that will help protect us in the digital world," stressed Angara.

He continued, "The Data Privacy Act was also made to be very flexible so that it would not impose undue constraints that will hamper the growth of the IT sector," said Angara, who chairs the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE).

Angara is looking forward to the speedy passage of the twin measures which remain pending for second reading approval.