By Madelaine B. Miraflor As the Philippines became one of the most targeted countries in terms of online threats, Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab finally convinced the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) that its expertise is crucial in helping improve the country's national cybersecurity framework. The deal came amid Kaspersky's intended expansion in the Philippines. A statement showed that Kaspersky Lab and the DICT recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their existing mutual commitment to address the information security challenges among local public sector agencies in support of the national cybersecurity framework of the Philippines. The agreement aims to further enhance capacity development and institution building on cybersecurity within the government sector. In this year’s second quarter cyberthreat report of Kaspersky Lab, the Philippines placed as the ninth most attacked country worldwide in terms of online threats. About 10.6 million web infections online were recorded in this period in the country, where 39 percent of the attacks were against individual Internet users and 11 percent were against businesses. “We are glad to take our current collaboration with the DICT to the next level and we’re looking forward to seeing the results of this agreement benefit the Filipinos," said Stephan Neumeier, Managing Director at Kaspersky Lab Asia Pacific. "Our experience at Kaspersky Lab alone shows how a collective approach in battling cybercrime is very effective at demystifying the most complex of cyberthreats and keeping ahead of the cyber criminals. With our cybersecurity expertise, we hope to support the Philippines the best way we can as we do with other governments around the world,” he added. Through the DICT, the Philippine government is now working to build on its digital infrastructure in order to protect the country from growing number of cyber attacks all over the world. As part of this effort, the government created the National CyberSecurity Plan 2022 (NCSP), which was formulated to improve the country’s cybersecurity capabilities. “The creation of the NCSP 2020 proved that the Philippine government, through the DICT, has indeed placed cybersecurity among its top national priorities,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky Lab. Under the MoU, Kaspersky and DICT should assist each other in cybercrime investigations in accordance with the guidance and supervision of the DICT National Cyber Intelligence Centre and relevant agencies. It also enables DICT and other relevant public sector agencies to review the source code, updates, and other components of Kaspersky Lab products through the Transparency Centre in Zurich, Switzerland. The two must also share relevant information, intelligence, and data through the DICT National Cyber Intelligence Centre.