Solons scrambling to outlaw hacking

Seeking to fill a legal gap exposed by the disastrous outbreak of the "Love Bug" virus, the House of Representatives is now scrambling to pass a law that will outlaw computer hacking.

House Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas (LAMP, Cebu) said yesterday they will open floor debates this week on House Bill 9971, the proposed Electronic Commerce Law.

"We will try our best to pass the bill before we adjourn on June 8. But it all depends on the extent of the floor debate. Right now, we do not foresee any hitches," Gullas said.

The proposed law seeks to "protect and promote" commercial transactions conducted through the Internet as well as penalize anyone "who shall hack into, alter, forge, inflict damage on, violate the secrecy of, or illegally misuse electronic documents, including e-mails."

Hackers could get six months to three years in prison, plus fines "commensurate to the damage occurred," Gullas said.

The lawmaker expressed confidence the bill, once enacted, would deter not only hacking but also other computer crimes, including Internet piracy of intellectual properties and other protected materials.

"Apart from penalizing computer crimes, the bill actually facilitates the prosecution of such crimes by making electronic documents, including simple e-mail, admissible evidence in court," Gullas said.

Pressure has mounted on the government to enact specific cybercrime laws after AMA Computer College student Onel de Guzman admitted last week he may have accidentally launched the "ILOVEYOU" virus.

Passage of some kind of law seems likely, with the Philippines embarrassed globally by the disclosure that although the virus may have been launched in the country, there is little that can be done about it.

A counterpart bill has been passed by the Senate but the two chambers need to amalgamate the two versions before it can be enacted into law by President Estrada.

However, anyone found to have created and released the "Love Bug" would be immune from any new law, because the program was released while hacking was not a crime in the Philippines.

Officials of AMA said a rejected thesis project by De Guzman bore a striking resemblance to the virus program and may have been combined with thesis material created by a fellow student, Michael Buen, to make the "Love Bug."

De Guzman is a member of the GRAMMERSoft, an organization of young computer programmers and students who create and sell software to small businesses and write theses for students.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it was focusing its probe on the underground group.

Reonel Ramones, the live-in partner of De Guzman's sister, was last week detained by authorities on suspicion of being the "alleged creator" of the bug, but was subsequently released due to lack of evidence.

State prosecutors have admitted they are still debating what charges to file against the suspected hackers in the absence of a specific anti-hacker law.

The virus infected the computers of anyone who opened an e-mail attachment entitled "ILOVEYOU," then moved on to all e-mail addresses stored in Microsoft Outlook, a popular e-mail program.

Experts have described the virus as the most destructive ever created, infecting millions of computers worldwide from the White House to the British and Danish parliaments.

Rep. Joker Arroyo (LAMP, Makati) urged the NBI yesterday to stop the inquiry into the "ILOVEYOU" virus, saying it was a waste of taxpayers' money.

"The NBI and the Department of Justice know fully well that this continuing nonsense will not lead to the filing of charges against anyone since no Philippine law has been violated," Arroyo said.

He pointed out that for any law enforcement agency to justify an investigation, a criminal act should have been committed in the country, and that such an offense "should have caused injury or damage here."

"As matters stand, an act has been committed but which does not violate any law and no one has been injured in the Philippines. No one here has complained," the lawmaker said.

Arroyo accused the NBI of pursuing the investigation to please the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US, where hacking is a criminal offense.

"We are being very hard on our own people just so we can please foreigners. What a pity," he said.

He suggested that a meeting or discussion simply be held between the suspected hackers and US computer experts.

"This would be more productive for all, instead of the NBI threatening suspects with charges that can never stick," Arroyo said. --