Cybersecurity tackled in US Embassy seminar

From the Mindanao Examiner (Jun 7, 2023): Cybersecurity tackled in US Embassy seminar

CEBU CITY – Over two dozen journalists from different parts of the country attended a two-day seminar on cybersecurity here organized by the U.S. Embassy in Manila.

The 15th Annual Media Seminar, titled “Building Blocks: The U.S.-Philippine Partnership for a Prosperous and Cyber-secure Digital Economy,” on June 6 and 7 also brought various speakers who tackled different issues, among them Internet Infrastructure, digital economy and business cyber health.








US Ambassador MaryKay Carlson also spoke virtually from Manila. Press attachés Kanishka Gangopadhyay and Stephen Dove spoke at the seminar.

Mary Grace Santos, of the Better Internet PH or BIP, a coalition of stakeholders pushing for accessible, reliable, affordable, and secure Internet for all Filipinos, discussed the major Internet challenges in the country.

Santos noted the poor Internet access in many areas, especially in the provinces, saying the Philippines lags behind other Asian countries. One example, she said, quoting a report by the Department of Information and Communications Technology, is the Bangsamoro autonomous region where only 1% of villages have access to broadband facilities.

Although major telephone companies (Telcos) such as PLDT-Smart and Globe Telecom have said they are putting up more cellular towers in the country, they face major challenges, including legal and regulatory barriers.

Santos noted the following - restrictive and outdated licensing process, current licensing limits building and operation of broadband networks to Telcos only; ISPs (Internet service providers) were just resellers, no framework for infrastructure sharing each provider digs road, lays own fiber, puts up own poles, and until recently own towers and costly, cumbersome network rollout and RoW (right of way) approval such as various permits, requirements from local governments and private associations.

But that’s not all, she said the legal and regulatory barriers under Public Telecommunications Policy Act (RA 7925) also require network operators to secure a Congressional franchise and Certificate of public convenience and non-telco ISPs were not allowed to build Internet network, even if not telephone-based and while there is a need to expand broadband networks, the high barriers, prohibitive cost persist.

Secure Connections, a coalition of cybersecurity stakeholders supported by The Asia Foundation, said cyberattacks this year have exposed more than 1.3 million records (roughly 800GB) of highly sensitive data under multiple state and law enforcement agencies.

According to the Philippine government survey in 2021, although many government agencies have good awareness of cybersecurity posture, the majority of them have low awareness of national policies, international standards, low organizational capacity, lack of necessary cybersecurity skills and expertise. And over half of agencies do not have a Computer Emergency Response Team.

Secure Connections identified the major gaps in these problems: policy awareness, organizational capacity, cybersecurity skills, financial resources, leadership support.

It said the country lacks a national policy directive mandating government agencies with jurisdiction over critical infrastructure (CI) to promote information security and has poor awareness and adoption of minimum information security standards that will protect CI institutions across the board. The country also has no clarity in institutional arrangements on cybersecurity such as enforcement, monitoring, and assessment; response to and reporting of cyber incidents; and mitigation of cyber risks.

CI refers to the following sectors: Banking and finance, Government, Broadcast media, Health, Business pjrocess outsourcing, Telecommunications, Emergency services, Transportation, Energy and Water. They are assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, that are considered so vital that their destruction or disruption would have a debilitating impact on national security, health and safety, or economic well-being of citizens, or any combination thereof.

Carlos Ely Tingson, SVP, Kroll Cyber Threat Intelligence, who spoke on Philippines Business Cyberhealth and how it affects the economy, said many organizations in the country are most concerned about data loss (70%), with 59% of the most recent cyberattacks reportedly causing it.

Tingson cited the 2022 State of Incident Response Report and said compared to other countries across Asia-Pacific (APAC), businesses were also much more concerned about intellectual property (60%); while 60% of respondents cited business interruption as the most significant consequences of a cyberattacks in the Philippines, 29% also cited regulatory fines, higher than in any other APAC country.

He also identified the threat incident types year over year and these are Email Compromise, Ransomware, Unauthorized Access, and Web Compromise. The direct cost of cybercrime, according to Tingson, is financial losses associated with a cyber-security incident and opportunity loss due to reputational damage and its impact to the broader ecosystem and economy.

John Avila, Senior Economic Growth Specialist, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said they have partnered with the Philippines to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth through development assistance in various areas.

He said among the USAID projects providing technical assistance to advance the digital economy are the BEACON or “Better Access and Connectivity (BEACON) Activity,” which is a five-year project designed to comprehensively support inclusive and resilient economic growth in the country in order increase productivity, facilitate trade, and foster innovation by improving the digital infrastructure ecosystem.

And SPEED or “Strengthening Private Enterprise for the Digital Economy,” which seeks to expand the participation of Philippines small and medium enterprises in the digital economy. Focusing on business to business and business to consumer e-commerce, Avila said SPEED works with the private sector and government to mobilize and maximize available resources in the digital economy for enterprise-led economic growth. (Jeng Fernandez)

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