THE fact that there had been two bills passed in Congress about the SIM registration system – one vetoed by former President Rodrigo Duterte and another finally making it as a law when it was approved by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the first legislation ever signed by him – confirms the high level of importance the government regards the project.
In a society where a majority of citizens own a cellphone and many have access to the internet, doing business such as buying and selling, ordering and delivering food and other packages, getting transportation needs thru apps, banking and other financial transactions, and working from home, digital security is indeed a primordial need.
The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Law or Republic Act 11934 was pushed in the Senate by its principal author, Sen. Grace Poe. She said the measure’s ultimate aim is 100 percent registration of all SIM users and zero text scam to give our mobile users a safe and secure environment in using the technology. The law provided a six-month period of registration for SIM owners, and extended the deadline for another 90 days.
Such a measure became a necessity when various kinds of money-making scams proliferated due to the popularity of cellphones and tablets used in modern communication, and the stupidity, laziness and high credulity level of many Filipinos.
‘Just like other laws with good intentions but fail to deliver because of lousy implementation, the SIM registration law’s implementing rules and regulations must be revised to include facial recognition and other fool-proof devices.’
During the first days following the listing deadline, tricks and scams delivered through text and cellphone calls decreased. Soon, it proved to be only a reprieve, as the digital scoundrels are showing their ugly heads again.
It was incumbent on the authorities to investigate why this is so. One reason discovered by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) lately is that telcos and service providers which handled the SIM registration had serious security gaps themselves.
At a recent hearing of Senator Poe’s Committee on Public Services, the NBI showed evidence that SIM cards may be registered even with a photo of an animal, prompting lawmakers to question whether the newly rolled out SIM registration system can prevent fake transactions.
At the hearing, NBI Cybercrime Division chief Jeremy Lotoc said they attempted to register newly bought SIM cards from different telcos using fake IDs bearing the smiling face of a monkey. These were accepted by the SIM registration system, Lotoc said.
The NBI official said fake government IDs can still be used to register SIM cards, making it difficult for authorities to identify the individuals behind fraudulent schemes, which were pervasive before RA 11934 and are still present today.
One telco official explained that the SIM card registration applications go directly to the system without electronic vetting, while another said they employ verification processes to validate submitted information and data, including the use of optical character recognition technology.
Just like other laws with good intentions but fail to deliver because of lousy implementation, the SIM registration law’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR) must be revised to include facial recognition and other fool-proof devices.
