Senator Dick Gordon underscored the need for the country to have its own cyber experts and stressed that the government should create plans on countering possible malicious cyber-attacks in the future.
During a session at the Senate recently, Gordon stated that the Philippines lacks preparations and plans in terms of cyber warfare and that the country is behind other nations when it comes to being visionary.
“We really have to plan ahead.”
“Tumatakbo tayo para lang makasabay sa agos at nahuhuli pa tayo; hindi umaandar. Dapat maghanda tayo. The basic thing here is kulang tayo sa preparasyon; kulang tayo sa plano. Kahapon, nag-committee hearing kami tungkol sa NGCP. Ang lumalabas, wala tayong plano for cyber warfare. We really have to plan ahead na dapat nakikita natin na kakailanganin natin ‘yung mga cyber experts,” the veteran legislator said.
The seasoned lawmaker also proposed sending Filipino students to other countries to study the newest innovations and breakthrough technologies like what Japan and Korea did.
“If we do not do that, we will perish as a nation.”
“We really have to come out with avenues upon which we can create, for example, money for cyber scholars that we can send abroad. The Japanese did it very well, the Koreans did it very well. They send their people abroad to learn the technology of other countries and they brought it back. They decided to become innovative. They decided to become visionary. If we do not do that, we will perish as a nation,” the senator said.
During the Senate Energy Committee hearing earlier this month, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anthony Almeda unintentionally exposed that the company experienced cyber-attacks “a hundred times.”
Gordon expressed concern over the incidents and stressed the need for the firm to undergo a full audit as the nation’s security is involved.
According to the 2019 data of Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, the Philippines is fifth among countries worldwide with the most online threats detected in the second quarter of 2019. The first four being Algeria, Nepal, Albania and Djibouti. The data said the country was attacked by cybercriminals using a drive-by download attack that works by accessing an infected website.