Leaders of Philippine Cybersecurity and Data Protection Communities of Practice attending the ASEAN-Japan Cybersecurity Technical Working Group joint meeting highlight the urgency for all government and private sector organizations to work in harmony together to fight against cyber threats in the Asia region.
“A harmonious whole-of-Asia and whole-of-society approach to fight cyber threats in the region has to be orchestrated among government and private sector leaders in ASEAN and Japan, along with other countries in the region,” Lito Averia, President of the Philippine Computer Emergency Response Team (PH-CERT) said. “Asian countries face the same threats, and all countries attending confirmed that their respective government’s digital infrastructure along with Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) are also being attacked constantly by international and even local threat actors,” Averia added.
“The constantly increasing cyber attacks on government digital ecosystems and CIIs call for nations in the Asia region to establish concrete solutions such as an Information Exchange Network which will serve as a cyber weather station that will receive, verify, then send out threat alerts to everyone that will impacted in the region,” Sam Jacoba, Founding President of the National Association of Data Protection Officers of the Philippines (NADPOP), and PH-CERT Vice President explained. ”In parallel, each country should continue to produce new cybersecurity professionals and to upskill current cybersecurity and information security personnel that are already working in government and private organizations,” Jacoba further said.
For the Philippines, PH-CERT and NADPOP estimate that the country needs 180,000 trained and validated cybersecurity professionals to proactively and effectively protect the country’s CIIs. Both communities added that a similar number of Data Privacy and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) trained and validated professionals is also needed by the Philippines.
“What is emerging through these meetings is a regional force for good that will serve as a shield for countries and citizens against threat actors, who are now using AI in their attacks.” Jacoba added. “We are inviting all active Communities of Practice in the region to collaborate with our regional community, the AJCCA, as threat actors are also organized in their actions. During these times, we truly need a whole-of-region, whole-of-society, and even whole-of-community cooperation to effectively respond to cyber threats.”
