By Brian Jules Campued
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has approved the National Cybersecurity Plan for 2024-2028 which will serve as a blueprint providing policy direction and operational guidelines to ensure a safe cyber landscape for the Philippines.
This was announced by Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy at a press briefing in Malacañang on Thursday.
“We presented the national cybersecurity plan to the President…it’s a document that provides policy direction, as well as operational guidelines on how to build up our cybersecurity posture vis-à-vis the rest of the world,” Sec. Uy said.
Uy added the cybersecurity plan was crafted following consultations with different stakeholders both in the public and private sectors, as well as the academe.
“We also compared it with the cybersecurity plans of all the other countries to see where the thrust has been in terms of addressing the increasing cyber threats,” he said.
The DICT chief said the plan also identifies cyber assets and infrastructure needing protection as well as provides the government with guidelines on how to respond to any cyberattacks or attempts.
Further, the plan would incorporate advanced threat assessment as part of the DICT’s proactive approaches in tackling possible cybercrimes.
Training, upskilling, and capacity-building for cybersecurity would also be intensified “on a massive scale” since a bulk of the Filipino workforce is composed of young workers, according to Uy.
“Because of this gap on cybersecurity, we’re hoping that by building up our capacity on cybersecurity, other countries would come and access our talents,” Uy continued.
“This is very ideal because in the next two decades, the Philippines will be the country that would have one of the biggest and youngest workforce that can address many of the challenges that are faced by First World countries – their aging population, their lack of manpower in order to meet their economic development,” he added. – avds
