Philippine Congress Rushes Anti-Phishing Bill

The Philippine House of Representatives is rushing its amendment of the Anti Phishing Bill of 2012 due to the increasing number of online security incidents in the country, reports PSSST. According to the local online newspaper, the House Bill No. 6199 aims to improve the security and privacy of personal information by making it a criminal offense to steal identity and credit card information through social engineering.

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Under HB 6199, phishing will carry a prison term of up to 12 years and PhP 200,000 (US$ 4,778). The Philippines currently has two existing anti-cybercrime laws: the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and the Data Privacy Act of 2011. The anti-phishing bill, meanwhile, aims to specifically address the problem of phishing, or securing personal information, passwords and other data, through social engineering or trickery, says Representatives Mariano Michael Velarde and Irwin Tieng, who are the proposed law’s primary sponsors.