DAVAO DEL NORTE (PIA) -- The Regional Anti-Cyber Crime Unit (RACU) of the Regional Police Office (RPO) XI is due to set up an office in Davao del Norte and deploy a Provincial Anti Cyber-crime Response Team.
Guesting in the latest edition of the Pakigsayod, RACU XI Asst Chief, PMaj. Vincent Magto, revealed the initial agreement between Police Colonel Antonio Alberio of Davao del Norte Police Provincial Office (DNPPO) and Davao del Norte Provincial Governor Edwin Jubahib on the presence and operation of RACCU in the province.
“We are awaiting the final arrangement for the activation of the Davao del Norte Provincial Anti -Cyber crime Response Team,” he said.
He said other priority areas that include the provinces of Davao Oriental and Davao del Sur though the Philippine National Police (PNP) XI will eventually set up RACU office in each of the province in Davao Region so cyber-crime victims outside Davao City can immediately report and seek assistance from proper authorities.
“Maraming mga victims who do not know kung saan tatakbo. We are making it a priority to establish anti cyber-crime response teams,” he added.
Basing on data of RACU XI, PMajor Lovely May Bitas of RACU XI Operations Section said that 30 cases were registered from Jan 2023 to May 2023 only, and next to Davao City, Davao del Norte had a number of cyber-crime complaints that reached RACU XI.
She said there could be more on the ground if RACU would be just within reach of victims to report and seek assistance from.
Prevalent and rapidly increasing cyber-crime case reported is illegal access or commonly known as hacking, but Bitas said online libel cases would still be predominant based on consolidated data from 2021 to 2023.
Magto explained that Section 4 of Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 or Republic Act No. 10175 qualifies as cyber-crime those online acts “which are offenses against confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer data.”
“Under this category is the illegal access, known as hacking; data interference and systems interference; misuse of device and cyber squatting or registering a domain name which one is not lawfully allowed to use,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) Davao del Norte Information Officer Rowena Taojo in the same occasion, reminded the public to use “strong” passwords with combinations of letters, numbers and symbols so online accounts would not easily be hacked.
She also cautioned the public from sharing passwords in anybody to keep accounts secured. (JMDA/PIA XI)
