Philippines’ Manila The lawmakers’ decision to deny the agency access to its private funds, according to the Department of Information and Communications Technology, sends the “wrong message” that the Philippines is not dedicated to protecting its cyber borders.
Ivan John Uy, the secretary of DICT, announced on Wednesday that the agency will file an appeal with Congress to get back the P300 million in confidential funds that it had recommended.
It’ll be a severe blow. In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, Uy stated, “Basically, we’re sending the wrong message to all cybercriminals that the Philippines is an open city, that they can commit whatever they want here and the government will not be able to go after them or prevent them from doing their criminal acts here.”
In the proposed national budget for the upcoming year, the House of Representatives resolved on Tuesday to provide the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte, the Department of Education, DICT, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Foreign Affairs no confidential money.
“The Philippines, defying the rest of the world, is defunding our cybersecurity and is actually announcing to the world that we’re not interested in protected our cyber borders,” Uy said. “While cyber threats and cyber criminals are increasing and becoming more sophisticated and they have more funds to do so.”
Confidential monies totaling P1.23 billion would be reallocated to organizations like the Philippine Coast Guard that are spearheading the nation’s territorial rights defense in the West Philippine Sea, according to the House Appropriations Committee.
However, Uy stressed that although physical borders are being guarded, virtual borders still need a lot of care.
He questioned, “What about our cyber borders?” “You have already witnessed the attack on our PhilHealth. And in the days, weeks, and years to come, there will be more of these. Does that not worry anyone?
According to authorities, a “staggering” number of files—roughly 734 gigabytes worth of data—including sensitive and personal data had been stolen from PhilHealth. The public was previously encouraged to enable multi-factor authentication and change the passwords on their internet accounts by the state health insurer.
The Philippine Statistics Authority announced on Wednesday that it has opened an inquiry into a purported systemic data breach. According to the government, there has been no impact on the Civil Registration System or the Philippine Identification System.
