The cyber world is relatively new, and unlike other types of assets, cyber assets are potentially

accessible to criminals in far-off locations. This distance provides the criminal with significant
protections from getting caught; thus, the risks are low, and with cyber assets and activities
being in the trillions of dollars, the payoff is high.

To ensure that the technical nature of cybercrime and its prevention is given focus and
considering the procedures involved for international cooperation, law enforcement authorities
specifically the computer or technology crime divisions or units responsible for the investigation
of cybercrimes.

On September 12, 2012, The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, officially recorded as Republic
Act No. 10175, was approved as a law in the Philippines which aims to address legal issues
concerning online interactions and the Internet in the Philippines. Among the cybercrime
offenses included in the bill are cybersquatting, cybersex, child pornography, identity theft,
illegal access to data and libel.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 is the first law in the Philippines which specifically
criminalizes computer crimes. While laws such as the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000
(Republic Act No. 8792) regulated certain computer-related activities, these laws did not
provide a legal basis for criminalizing crimes committed on a computer in general. The Act has
31 sections split across 8 chapters. It focuses several types of offense, including illegal access
(hacking), data interference, device misuse, cybersquatting, computer-related offenses such as
computer fraud, content-related offenses such as cybersex and spam, and other offenses.

The law also reaffirms several existing laws such as law against child pornography (an offense
under Republic Act No. 9779, the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009), and libel (an offense
under Section 355 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines), also criminalizing them when
committed using a computer system. It also mandates the establishment of special “cybercrime
courts” which will handle cases involving cybercrime offenses.