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The process involved in investigating allegations of cybercrime is discussed in the case of the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte who allegedly made threats against President Marcos during a press conference.
MANILA, Philippines – The process of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in investigating alleged cybercrimes was laid bare on the fourth day of the Vice President’s Office. Sara Duterte impeachment case Monday, July 13.
During his presentation as a prosecution witness, NBI Bangsamoro Administrative Region in Muslim Mindanao Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc said there are four steps in their investigation:
- Identification and preservation of digital evidence
- Collection and hashing of digital evidence
- Analysis and characteristics
- Legal review, then file a complaint
Preservation of digital evidence is important to protect its integrity.
Meanwhile, hashing is done as part of storage. Through a hashing tool, investigators can extract the hash value of a particular electronic file.
A hash value is a sequence of characters generated by an algorithm that serves as a digital fingerprint of a file. Generating a hash value after saving a file may indicate that the specified file has not been modified.
During the trial, Lotoc also emphasized the mandate of the NBI: to investigate allegations of threats against high-ranking government officials including the president, vice president, Senate president, House speaker, and chief justice.
Part 5 of Republic Act No. 10867 or the National Bureau of Investigation Reorganization and Modernization Act it lists under the jurisdiction of the NBI. This includes cases of human trafficking in airports, arbitrary killings by government forces against media activists and activists, among others.
Article 5(g) states: “(Investigate) cases involving security threats or attacks against the persons of the President, Vice President, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”
The NBI, a powerful bureau, is an agency of the Department of Justice. In addition to the aforementioned authority, the office, upon request, also provides technical assistance to all prosecution and law enforcement agencies, as well as other government agencies. – Rappler.com
