Police, judges need to learn IT to fight cyber-criminals

There is no need to pass new laws to allow cops to search and seize computers used as tools in committing crimes and arrest cyber-criminals. Extant laws governing those crimes are already in place.

But law enforcers and judges can avoid committing a lot of mistakes if they understand the new technology. There is an urgent need for them to upgrade their knowledge on information technology and computer literacy.

This has been the consensus reached by legal and computer experts who joined a roundtable discussion on a study paper titled: Searching and Seizing Computer Evidence prepared by a group of lawyers from the University of the Philippines Law Center.

The forum was called by the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (PHILEXPORT) under its trade advocacy project supported by the United States Aid for International Development (USAID). It was an extention of the advocacy that led to the passage into law of the E-commerce law that criminalized hacking and computer theft.

The mere unplugging by policemen of a computer used in committing fraud or in transferring funds from abroad to terrorist groups here or securing a list of pushers from a drug syndicate boss’ files – may erase all the evidence in the computer.

The same thing can happen when non-experts search for computer files that have self-destruct programs when one attempts to open those files.

Experiences related by Optical Media Board legal head, Albert Taw, had also shown several instances when ignorance of technology by either the judges or the cops, got cases against VCD and DVD pirates quashed.

One particular case was when a judge ordered a seized DVD replicating machine returned, perhaps not knowing that the machine was the main tool in violating the intellectual property right (IPR) law.

Participants that included Supreme Court information system chief, Ivan John Uy, agreed that a computer literacy program must be embarked specially for law enforcers and judges to equip them with sufficient working knowledge in dealing reasonably with crimes that involve the use of computers.

It was pointed out that the rapid spread of information technology has given birth to a new breed of sophisticated criminals that commit money laundering, electronic theft, and a host of traditional crimes from kidnapping to illegal drugs trade made easier with the use of computers and other electronic gadgets like cell phones.

Citing an example, a lawyer participants revealed that he found out only recently that his dollar account in a bank in California was transferred to another account without his consent. – ABE P. BELENA, Philexpot News and Features