World is hostage on info superhighway

The Internet is to me, the greatest invention since sliced bread. And at the rate the world has embraced this technology, it seems the whole world agrees. Yet, last week's episode with the love bug virus has given me reason for second thoughts. One wonders if this technology isn't extremely dangerous for the world to be so dependent on.

It took a man (or woman) from Bagong Barangay Housing Project in Pandacan, someone who didn't seem to have a sophisticated knowledge of the technology, to shut down a large part of Europe and America with a virus that experts describe as "crude". And here is the scary part: experts say there is no real fool proof defense for such future viral attacks.

Imagine the computers at the Pentagon, Federal Reserve Board, the Brtitish Parliament, NASA, many giant corporations immobilized by a virus made on a simple computer costing less than $500 and propagated by using a prepaid Internet access card probably with less than $10 value in it via ordinary phone lines. This technology is terribly egalitarian, it certainly levels the playing field in a way David wouldn't have dreamt when he faced Goliath.

I grew up a couple of blocks away from Bagong Barangay Housing Project in Zamora Street, Pandacan. My mother's medical practice included a great number of patients from Bagong Barangay. It never occurred to me that one day, someone using a telephone registered to a resident of that cluster of tenement high rises, will do the cyber equivalent of throwing a cream pie on the face of billionaire Bill Gates. He or she demonstrated that the Windows software, which made Mr. Gates unbelievably rich, is so full of holes it qualifies as a dangerous consumer rip off.

Gee, the world is hostage to mischievous anti social characters in the information superhighway. Even those who are just a little computer savvy, are more dangerous than the Abu Sayyaf. That isn't a very comforting thought. We are putting all our eggs in the Internet basket with e-this and e-that, even if we haven't quite made it safe enough from cyber terrorists.

From the world's perspective, the Abu Sayyaf brand of terrorism isn't half as terrifying as what this computer hacker from Bagong Barangay, Pandacan has done. How's that for putting the Philippines in the map of the cyberworld?

What a way to advertise to the world where the Philippines is. That's why I felt ambivalent about the news report of a Swedish professor who identified the love bug author as a German living in Australia. How dare them try to steal this dubious distinction from us!

They must hate us in Europe by now. First, bandits who unfortunately are Filipinos raided a foreign tourist resort and took away European hostages. Then a Filipino shuts down their computers, but not without first saying I Love You.

But wait till you hear what happens next. Or rather, what does not happen next. In civilized countries, once someone causes damage to society as this hacker from Pandacan did, police authorities move quickly to arrest the culprit and bring him or her to the bar of justice. No such thing happened in the case of the love bug hacker.

International police authorities moved quickly enough. The Interpol and the FBI were on the job almost instantaneously. So was our NBI and its brand new unit trained by the FBI to go after cyber criminals. But at about 2:30 in the afternoon last Friday, we got word that the NBI couldn't raid the Pandacan residence because the judges were gone for the weekend and there was no one to sign a search warrant. That was simply outrageous.

Identifying the culprit, or at least retracing his or her tracks was not difficult. We all leave a trail on the Internet. We can't be totally anonymous on the world wide web. By early Friday morning, we had the phone number used in the illegal entry to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) victimized by the hacker. By mid morning, there was a subscriber's name and address. But the quick work of law enforcers were for naught because we were approaching a weekend.

By early evening, the NBI found a judge but the judge reportedly refused to sign the search warrant and instead gave the law enforcers a lecture on procedure with the admonition to return on Monday and go through the process. The judge didn't see the urgency of the situation. The whole world was watching and the international police agencies were reporting back to headquarters that the Philippine judicial process is an immovable rock on a weekend.

By midnight, the US Embassy and the Department of Justice were in on the act. By late Saturday afternoon, they were still looking for a judge to sign the warrant. In the meantime, another ISP whose e-mail system was used by the hacker thoughtlessly gave media the details about the hacker being a resident of Pandacan. If the hacker is savvy enough to create that virus and infect the world, he or she would be able to use the advance warning to cover his or her tracks as well as he or she could.

Well, that's the Philippines for you. We have world class professionals whose work have helped bring man on the moon. But our institutions are inefficient and possibly rotten, explaining why we are still this poor. The NBI agents have trained for the job and are raring to go but as always, the judiciary is incapable of taking an effective role in fighting crime.

That's the same complaint I keep on hearing from police officers. They spend time and risk their lives to crack a case only to see the criminals go scot free courtesy of the judiciary. The NBI and the police have been philosophically dealing with their frustrations with the judiciary as part of their job.

Well, come to think of it, even if we managed to pin the bastard down, what can we charge him with in Philippine courts? Malicious mischief perhaps, with three months in jail, a sentence that can even be suspended under our parole system. We do not have enough laws that deal with the Internet and the fast changing world of telecommunications. That's beyond the comprehension and interest of our lawmakers in Congress.

In fact, the reason the phone number used by that hacker was banned by one of the ISPs that was victimized is because the hacker had the habit of gaining illegal entry to steal access time. Hackers who do this are costing local ISPs millions of pesos in lost revenue. But there is no specific law to penalize pilferage of Internet access time.

What happened over the weekend is an international embarrassment. The love bug virus is bad but at least the notoriety that came with it also gave the impression that we are techno savvy. The worse part is how one of our established institutions failed to measure up to the world's expectations. What civilized country allows its judicial system to completely stop because it is a weekend?

The world can probably take the Abu Sayyaf and understand that the kidnapping of tourists may possibly have a legitimate political and social justice angle to it. But I doubt if they can understand why a potential criminal's lair identified hours earlier can't be raided because no judge is available to sign a warrant on a weekend? Aren't there exceptions to the rule on weekend warrants for meritorious and urgent cases such as this and when the danger of flight and possible destruction of evidence is strong?

Wait till the world learns that our judges are not always reluctant to work on week ends. You and I know they can be quick to sign injunction orders anytime of the day or night for cases with infinitely less world impact, if any, but you know... alam mo na...what makes them enthusiastic.

It is simply unbelievable. How many salas are there in Manila and not one judge was available to hear the evidence and issue an urgent search warrant for a case that is front page news in all major cities of the world?

Ano ba? Ano bang klaseng gobyerno ito? Nakakahiya na ito sa buong mundo. The failure of our judicial system to act last weekend on this love bug virus author is nothing less than a scandal of international significance.

People are just so attached to the Internet these days that children think everything is defined by it, as this one sent by Ernie Espiritu shows.

A teacher asked one of her pupils, "What's the nation's capital?"

The reply was, "Washington D.C."

On being asked what the "D.C." stood for, the pupil replied, "Dot com!"

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])