Sunday, October 13, 2019

Fight against terrorists expands to cyberspace

From the Manila Times (Oct 11, 2019): Fight against terrorists expands to cyberspace


Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana photo by Dj Diosina

DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana believes improving the Philippines’ capability to counter terror acts in cyberspace will “take time” but claims the country is not particularly disadvantaged given current efforts, both domestic and international, to address the matter.

He told The Manila Times that the Department of Information and Communication Technology was “currently upgrading” the Philippines’ cybersecurity systems.

“Every department [in the government] has their own cybersecurity efforts. But these are not the [state] of the art ones compared to other countries, which went into this earlier than us,” the Defense chief pointed out.

He is confident, however, that the Philippine government has the advantage when it comes to fighting terrorist activities through social media or the Internet in general.

“Use by the IS (Islamic State) of social media to spread their cause and recruit fighters is a huge concern for the DND (Department of National Defense). But in the same vein, we can also use it to counter their propaganda,” he claimed.

Governments across the globe also have the power to regulate social media sites by shutting down accounts used by terrorists in their efforts of promoting their cause to the general public and recruiting people to join them.

Twitter reported that since 2015, 935,000 accounts found to be promoting terrorism had been suspended as the tech firm’s way of combating extremism in cyberspace.

“Therefore, in this battle for social media, we have the advantage,” Lorenzana declared.

Still, Col. Noel Detoyato, public affairs chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, says it is “a challenge because we are still in the process of augmenting our cyber operations and an opportunity, for engagement with other stakeholders in the fight against terrorism both in the physical and the digital frontiers.”

The AFP Cyber Group (AFPCyG), activated in June, will be conducting “planned, coordinated, integrated and synchronized efforts” in cyberspace to add teeth to anti-terrorist operations.

Another effort involves the publication of social media handbooks for soldiers with regard to using the internet responsibly and safely.

“Seminars and lectures are also being conducted to keep our troops updated on current trends and security protocols in the use of internet,” Detoyato noted.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2019/10/11/supplements/fight-against-terrorists-expands-to-cyberspace/630029/

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