The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has initiated a Cybersecurity Summit last week, which aimed to prevent cyberattacks.
The forum, held at the Civil Aviation Training Center in Merville Access Road, Pasay City, was organized amid reports that Philippines moved up to the fifth place from ninth in Kaspersky Lab’s global list of countries with the most online threats detected in the second quarter of 2019.
As cybercrimes continue to evolve, it poses to become one of the biggest challenges that major establishments identified as Critical Information Infrastructures will face.
Among these CIIs include the Energy, Water, Banking and Finance, Healthcare, Transport, Information Communication, Media, Security and Emergency Services, Government, and Aviation sectors, which means these sectors have a significant need to have its cybersecurity systems updated and equipped in dealing with the threat of cyberattacks.
CAAP chief information officer and spokesperson Eric Apolonio said the forum discussed a wide range of topics on cybersecurity, including the Philippine government’s cybersecurity initiatives with regard to the national cybersecurity plan, the cybercrime threat landscape in the country, the best practices on cybersecurity, and the malware defense methods in the age of artificial intelligence.
“After each talk, the participants and instructors for an open forum where they raised important questions on cyber safeguarding and shared their insights as information technology (IT) practitioners,” said Apolonio.
Present during the event were CAAP Management Information Systems Division chief Capt. Dante D. Langkit and Deputy Director General for Administration Ricardo C. Banayat who introduced the keynote speakers.
Department of Information Communication Technology–Cybersecurity Bureau Policy chief Genalyn Macalinao, PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group-Cyber Response Unit Assistant Chief Lt. Col. Weneco Fuentes, CISCO Philippines Cybersecurity Sales Specialist Bing Reaport and SecureAge Technology Pte Ltd. Ailan Tan also attended the forum.
The forum also aims to promote a safe and resilient Philippine cyberspace as embodied in the Republic Act No. 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.