By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

 A few years ago, I watched The Net, a film about Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) whose identity gets erased by a cabal of shadowy people. She fights, with all her might, to prove that she exists through exhausting, energy-zapping twists and turns. At that time, it was just an entertaining movie, hardly affecting everyday life, and not the nightmare that it can be.

My first encounter with being “erased” happened in the late 90s, at the height of projects whose paper work almost consumed fifty percent of the time spent for project activities. I spent most of the time sitting in front of the computer, finishing required reports. At some point, as I was composing an email, the words just disappeared, then I could no longer access my email. I was told I was hacked, so I tried to recover my account by changing my password and each time I did, I lost it again and again. This seesaw process became a challenge of wits, speed and determination between the hacker and me, and if I succeeded at all, it was because I invested more in the recovery effort, realizing my loss will be much heavier.

That was so long ago that I have already forgotten it, remembering it only because my sister Thelma’s computer has been hacked. She was told by her children that she was hacked, but she was in the middle of a banking transaction she had waited for months to clinch. Also, she is not a techie and had no appreciation of the dangers of being hacked. Her children were alarmed that she waited for the meeting to end, long after the first confirmation of a cash out from her friends who thought that the request for money was truly from her. That is when it hit her, urgency was necessary. Her friends confirmed to her that they sent this and that amount via GCash and Pay Maya to Jayson Roque (GCash Account 0977468150), the person she allegedly authorized to receive the money in her behalf.

By mid-afternoon, the verified money sent amounted to more or less Sixty Thousand Pesos (P60,000.00), excluding those that were sent the next day from friends who called verifying if Jason Roque handed the money to her. With the help of her kids, some friends and myself, we tried to recover her email, Facebook and Messenger accounts, but the hacker had so much lead time, he erased all her passwords. Worse, she no longer remembers the passwords she provided in the beginning to create those accounts. The hacker also erased the group chats where she was actively engaged, including our own family chats!

Facebook, Messenger and email hacking are rampant now. Change your passwords once a month, as often as you can, to avoid being hacked. Put not only numbers and alternating small capital letters but also signs. If you are a victim and you sent money, please report to the anti-hacking department of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and seek the help of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Alert your family and friends. Act with urgency.

I hope SIM registration will be enforced with finality and political will. We were told by the PNP that in one of their investigations, a four-year old acquired registration with G Cash and Pay Maya. These cash outlets must be required to transact only with duly registered and verified SIM card holders. Public good is a civic responsibility and this includes measures to avoid scams, especially because these companies are earning so much profit with very little accountability. Government should regulate, with diligence, those whose services deal with money.

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