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DICT chief Uy asks Congress to allocate funds for cybersecurity


DICT chief Uy asks Congress to allocate funds for cybersecurity

Information and Communications Secretary Ivan Uy on Tuesday asked Congress to allocate funds for the country's cybersecurity.

The secretary made the appeal at a Commission on Appointments (CA) committee hearing as he disclosed that the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has no funds to procure cybersecurity equipment.

"Sadly our cybersecurity budget was cut in half for this year and we do not have any funds at all to acquire cybersecurity equipment in order to protect our digital infrastructure and we earnestly appeal that we have the capability, we have the people, we have the desire to do it, but Congress has to give us the ammunition the arms so we can fight for our country. That is our urgent appeal," Uy said.

Right now, Uy said cybersecurity is the "primary concern" of the DICT as the country needs to be protected not only from organized cybercriminals but also from state-sponsored cyberattacks.

"We need to be aware of our current cybersecurity situation which would need to be addressed rapidly and on a scale that has never been done in the past and that's where we actually appeal to Congress to provide us with the means to do [so]," he said.

The DICT chief said they are already launching several cybersecurity initiatives such as the preparation of a national cybersecurity framework and plan for 2023 to 2028.

This is expected to be released in the middle of next year, he added.

While the framework is being crafted, Uy said they are in constant meetings with various agencies such as the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of National Defense, National Security Agency, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, among others, to "build up the cybersecurity capabilities" of the government.

Further, Uy said they are "very active" in participating in the joint cybersecurity working group organized by the United States.

"This is one of our priority areas, we just need ammunition to deal with it more extensively," he said.

SIM card registration

On the other hand, Uy said the SIM Card Registration law is a "step in the right direction" amid assessments that similar legislations in other countries did not result in reduction of crime.

"The SIM card registration law is a step in the right direction because although it does not completely address cybercrime, it clips their wings from one modality which is a very frustrating and irritating modality," he said.

He mentioned as example the text scams that have been prevalent in the country in the past few months.

"All of us, our countrymen po...actually are consistently barraged by all these text scams, all these fraud. And ang hinaing po ng publiko is to put a stop to his once and for all. And once na na-register ang SIM card, mahihirapan po itong mga sindikato na gamitin ito," he said.

(The public is appealing that we should put a stop to it once and for all. And once the SIM cards are registered, syndicates will have a harder time using them.)

"Maaari silang humanap ng ibang paraan, at hindi ko ida-divulge dito ano pa 'yung mga ibang paraan d'yan, pero at least itong modality po na gamitin nila itong SIM card ay mapuputol po natin. At 'yan po ay isang magandang panukala at suportahan po natin yon," he added.

(They may look for other ways [to continue their modus] but I will not divulge here what other ways can be done. At least this modality of using the SIM card will not be used anymore. And that is one good move and we will support that.) —KG, GMA Integrated News

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