JONATHAN Y. DEE

Just how prepared is the Philippine Justice System in handling Cyber Crime related cases?

Part I:

The Cyber Crime Law just like any other criminal cases requires proof beyond reasonable doubt in order to arrive at conviction of the accused cyber criminals.

IDENTITY

The identity of the cyber criminal must be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

There are many techniques in order to get the identity of the cyber criminals. One is through their IP address to which their Internet Service Providers can be identified. In turn, these Internet Service providers can provide the necessary information to properly identify the cyber criminal. Easier as it seems, there are lots of stumbling blocks along the way. Firstly, the Internet Service Providers may require a court order prior to the delivery of the much awaited information by lawyers, law frims or even the authorities. Secondly, it is an internal policy of the Internet Service Providers whether or not to keep and maintain a system of storing IP addresses together with the complex database neede to maintain the same, and for a definite period of time. Is there a law mandating Data Retention to Internet Service Providers?

Moreover, some social networking services intentionally hides these much sought IP address from those who are interested in obtaining it, including the government and the authorities tasked to run after cyber criminals. How ofter did these authorities complain of the slow response time given by service providers and if these service providers will give these information away (even if they want to). The information may not be available to them as obtaining and/or maintaining the same would entail costs not directly related to their income, thus a burden in their capital expenditures. How can they be expected to invest on equipment that has nothing to do with their sales and income?

Fortunately, even if the service providers would withhold these information to the requesting authorities, there is a way by which these IP addresses can be obtained by the requesting parties. A system of obtaining these much sought IP addresses was devised by the Cyber Crime Complaint Center independent of the Service Providers. These IP addresses can be obtained in a matter of minutes by the requesting parties.

Unfortunately, there are also services available for the private citizens and cyber criminals alike to mask their IP address from the "prying eyes" of the State. I would not attempt to go on details here as it may inspire the cyber criminals more that deter them from committing simple to complex cyber criminal activities. There was a time when these services are expensive but nowadays, some of these services are even offered for free. Where lies the so-called Corporate Social Responsibility?

Finally, even if these IP addresses and the identity of its corresponding account holders are identified, there may also be a reasonable doubt as to the exact person who allegedly perpetrated the crime. Who among the household members or employees, as the case may be, committed the act complained of? There is only circumstantial evidence available, in some cases.

Up next... Part II: Law Enforcement; Identity of the Cyber Criminal.

Note: 

Engr. Antonio E. Jimeno, Jr., ECE is a Cyber Crime Consultant. He is a resource speaker in various training and seminars to the government agencies, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Private Corporations and Business Entities as well as Schools and Universities since 1989. He also conducts training and seminars on Ethical Hacking, Cyber Crime Forensics and Techniques, Data Communication, Web Page Design, Website Development, Website Administration and E-Commerce among others. Engr. Antonio E. Jimeno, Jr., ECE is also a SEO Practitioner, specializing in removing bad, malicious and libelous articles not only from the search engines' page results but from the Internet as well. Engr. Antonio E. Jimeno, Jr., ECE founded the International Portal Cyber Crime Complaint Center as well as Online Reputation Management Philippines.

"Engr. Antonio 'Tony' Jimeno, Jr., specializes in removing libelous articles and malicious blog sites not only in search engines but also in the Internet.
He coordinated closely with Google, Inc. (USA and Finland) for the successful removal of malicious and libelous blog sites  against our lady-client who is a known executive in the travel industry. And while waiting for the favorable results, Engr. Tony Jimeno took it upon himself to remove and de-list such sites in the Yahoo and Google Search Engines utilizing effective SEO Techniques. Engr. Tony Jimeno was also able to identify the culprit and was able to gather enough electronic evidence to win our case but our lady-client refused to proceed further for personal and security reasons." (Testimonial on one Internet Defamation Case handled by a lawyer, an associate dean of a prestigious law school, and whose case was referred to the Cyber Crime Complaint Center Portal)

Engr. Antonio E. Jimeno Jr. |  Create Your Badge