President Marcos has approved the National Cybersecurity Plan to beef up Philippines’ defense against cyberattacks and online threats, Department of Informational and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy said on Thursday, Feb. 8.
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)
In a Palace press briefing, the official shared that he presented to the President the country’s plan to craft policy direction and operational guidelines to fortify its cybersecurity systems, as well as plans to upskill the country’s young workforce.
“We presented the national cybersecurity plan to the President. This was, you know, more than a year in the making and it’s actually a very comprehensive plan covering year 2024-2028,” Uy said.
“So the national cybersecurity plan is, well, it’s a document that provides direction, policy direction, as well as operational guidelines on how to build up our cybersecurity posture vis-à-vis the rest of the world,” he added.
The DICT shared that the plan was created with help from the public and private sectors, the academe, and the best practices in other countries.
The plan would also include an “advance threat assessment,” so the country can be better prepared for future attacks by receiving information from international partners.
He cited that this would be useful when a cyberattack happens in a bank in another country, which can provide information through the computer emergency response teams about how the attack happened.
“So, our banks would be advised ahead of time and prepare for it. Because whatever vulnerability has been exploited in that attack would most likely be the same vulnerability that cyber criminals will use in order to penetrate the other banks or other financial institutions,” Uy explained.
The cybersecurity plan also includes the capacity building and upskilling of the Philippines’ young workforce, especially because many brick-and-mortar businesses moved online during the pandemic and cybercriminals saw an opportunity to exploit.
“So this opened up a very big opportunity for cyber criminals seeing that, okay, there’s a shift to online transactions and online commerce, so they’re seeing trillions of dollars moving online and wherever their money is, the cyber criminals are there,” he said.
This vulnerability led to many e-commerce platforms and e-wallet providers now “catching up and starting to build up their cybersecurity in order to protect customers, in order to protects clients, in order to protect the general public from scammers, from phishing and from many of the other … from ransomware and many other threats.”
Uy called the Philippines’ young workforce “ideal” as first-world countries would soon need resources to address the challenge of cybersecurity.
“We’re hoping that by building up capacity on cybersecurity, other countries would come and access our talents. So, you know, the salary in the cybersecurity arena is quite good. In most cases, the salary is higher than any Cabinet secretary. So it’s a very, very lucrative profession and the hiring is there,” he said.
To help boost the cybersecurity plan’s reach, the DICT official also stressed the agency’s current information campaign and urged the public to visit sites that regularly educate the people on the prevalent online scams often used to secure and protect themselves from being victimized.