"We are now seeing a trend where criminals are now exploiting the many possibilities of cyberspace by making use of the Internet in their criminal activities. Unfortunately, at the moment, we don’t have all the equipment and the laws to go after these criminals," said Elfren Meneses, head of the NBI’s Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division.
It will be recalled that it was the NBI’s AFCCD who tracked down Onel de Guzman, a Filipino computer programmer who allegedly wrote the infamous "Love Bug" computer virus that damaged computers all over the world last year.
De Guzman, however, was not charged beceause there were no laws yet existing against computer hacking. It was only after his arrest and release that the country passed the electronic commerce law, or the E-commerce Law.
According to the NBI-AFCCD, they are now seeing a global trend in which criminals plan their crimes and even launder money undetected through the Internet.
The NBI added that even terrorists make full use of Internet chat rooms to plan their attacks. While inside these chat rooms they can also plan attacks undetected as they make use of nicknames and coded messages only known to them.
Meneses suggested that law enforcement agencies in the Philippines should be allowed to tap or read secured electronic mail if there is suspicion that these contain contents related to criminal or terrorist activities.