[JURIST] Philippine President Benigno Aquino III [official profile] on Wednesday signed a cybercrimes law [RA 10175, PDF; press release] to prevent various electronic offenses including forgery, fraud, identity theft and child pornography. The new crimes are grouped into two sections: Internet Crimes and Commercial Crimes. “Among the punishable acts under the new law include offenses against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data system, illegal access, illegal interception, data interference, system interference, and misuse of devices.” Another new crime is “cyber-squatting” which is “the acquisition of a person’s domain name in bad faith to profit, mislead, destroy the reputation and deprive others from registering the same.”

Cybercrime and electronic privacy laws have been a focus of courts and legislatures throughout the world. Earlier this month New York Governor Andrew Cuomo [official website] signed into law a bill [JURIST report] that amends the state’s penal code to prohibit the access and viewing of child pornography on the Internet. Internet search company Google [corporate website] has faced investigations and legal action over privacy concerns and electronic security matters in Switzerland, the EU, Japan and the US [JURIST reports] over the past year.