DOJ arming prosecutors with upgraded tools to better handle cybercrime cases

THE Justice Department is working to upgrade the tools available to government prosecutors to keep them up to date on how to handle the ever-evolving trend of cybercrime.

DOJ Undersecretary Raul Vasquez’s remarks came amid recent cases of hacking targeting government and private websites and cyberscam.

“The Department of Justice is very much focused on heightening its capacity of cybercrime prevention and, in fact, the cybercrime law capacitates more the prosecutor in the fight against cybercrime,” Vasquez said.

“There is an effort really to secure the latest technology to enable the prosecutors and law enforcement in this fight against cybercrime. We have to emphasize that the law is a bit static and a bit behind in terms of technology and cybercrime as we know it is an ever-evolving area where there is a lot of prospects for criminality within the domestic sphere as well as the international sphere,” he added.

Vasquez said the DOJ is also working to upgrade the National Justice Information System or NJIS to enable all partner agencies to talk with each other so they share information and all data could be uploaded and made available to everyone in the fight against criminality, including cybercrimes.

“There are transnational crimes being committed and there is a serious effort, a whole government approach is being undertaken by all security agencies of our government in order that we may combat this rising nefarious activity,” he added.

Last year, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said government agents fighting cyber-related crimes need more funds as he stressed that most crimes nowadays have cyber content.

Remulla said there is a need to raise the funding for the cybercrime units of the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation to enable them to recruit more personnel.

Among the cases being handled by the DOJ and NBI cybercrime division are identity thefts, online scams or fraud, hacking of bank accounts and personal accounts, phishing, cyber libel, forensic accounting and other violations that fall within the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.