By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
With the escalating global cyber attacks and the Philippines ranked as the second most-attacked country last year in the information given by a global cyber security firm’s online security monitoring, the global cybersecurity threats and cyberattacks continue.
Cognizant of the unabated threats, a collaboration between other countries is forged to strengthen information security and cybersecurity in the Philippines and in the Asia region
Information security, cybersecurity and data protection communities in Asia joined hands today in an initiative that will strengthen cooperation between their communities and countries to fight against cyber threats.
The Philippine Computer Emergency Response Team (PH-CERT) and, the National Association of Data Protection Officers of the Philippines (NADPOP), with the NPO Japan Network Security Association (JNSA) and the Indonesia Network Security Association (IdNSA) launched CyberSecConPH, a conference that aims to facilitate networking and knowledge sharing among individuals and organizations in the field of Information Security (InfoSec) and Cybersecurity, especially cross-sector collaboration between public and private entities.
CyberSecConPH also aims to strengthen and sustain an InfoSec and Cybersecurity Community of Practice in the Philippines and forge connections with similar communities in the Philippines and Asia.
The speakers of CyberSecConPH include: Seiichi Ito, Chair of the International Relations Committee of the JNSA; Dr. Rudi Lumanto, Founder and Advisor of the IdNSA; PH-CERT President Lito Averia; USec. Jeffrey Dy of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT); Wilson Chua, Co-Founder of Bandwidth and Signal Strength Philippines (BASS) Philippines; Engels Antonio ICT Committee Chair of the National Advisory Group for Police Transformation and Development of the Philippine National Police (PNP); Atty. Mara Villegas, PH-CERT Vice President for Legal, PH-CERT; Atty. Kiko Acero, Data Protection Officer of Meralco; and, Abet Dela Cruz, Co-Founder of PH-CERT.
“Creating an Asia-wide Cybersecurity Community of Practice and Cooperation is one of the best ways for us to fight against cyber crime,” Mr. Ito said. “We are grateful that the Philippines responded positively to the Japan-ASEAN Cybersecurity Community initiative, and we look forward to engaging and sharing best practices with our fellow practitioners in your country.”
Dr. Lumanto added that Indonesia and the Philippines share a lot of common characteristics when it comes to InfoSec and Cybersecurity challenges. “Our countries share a lot of history in ASEAN and have participated in bilateral projects in technology. We believe that our countries’ InfoSec and Cybersecurity professionals will bring a lot of value and experience to the Japan-ASEAN Cybersecurity Community.”
“Stronger partnerships of individuals and communities that cooperate and fight against cyber threats is the best way to protect citizens and countries. Next month, we will join colleagues in the conference in Tokyo and we will see a bigger picture on what lies ahead for cybersecurity,” Mr. Averia said.
Sam Jacoba, CyberSecConPH Conference chair added that “it is about time that a multi-country approach spearheaded by Communities of Practice will join hands to fight against cyber criminals. Along with similar initiatives from government institutions and other private sector organizations, our Communities of Practice will work with them proactively to train current and future InfoSec and Cybersecurity professionals to enable them to go head-to-head against online threats.”
The Japan-ASEAN International Conference on ASEAN-JAPAN Cybersecurity Community (IC-AJCC) happens October 5-6 in Tokyo, Japan and will be conducted in a hybrid format.
For interested parties and more information, you can visit the registration site: https://asean-cbp.org/ic-ajcc-cc-form/