US willing to help PH combat cyber attacks as hackings mount

The United States looks forward to closer cooperation to help the Philippines find ways to combat cybercrimes and cyber attacks in light of the spate of hackings of government websites over the past weeks

US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson, in a roundtable discussion Wednesday, said there is yet no specific request for assistance from the Philippines, but communication is ongoing on ways to address “all types” of cyber-attacks.

“We are already working closely on cyber issues,” Carlson said. “We have a very active coordination on how we can together combat cybercrimes and cyber-attacks of all types.”

She said cyber security is central to the Philippines-US relations given that data from the US is also tied to Philippine data, especially with the country’s large business process outsourcing sector.

“When Wall Street closes down a lot of those backroom operations transfer out here so it’s not just Philippine data that is endangered by any attacks here, it’s US data, it’s data globally that could potentially be affected,” the envoy said.

“This is an important issue for US-Philippine relations and we are working very closely with the Philippines on ways that we can combat cyber attacks,” she added.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. was earlier subjected to a ransomware attack, with cyber hackers demanding roughly PHP17 million for the compromised database.

This month, the Philippine Statistics Authority also suffered a data breach in its Community-Based Monitoring System.

Makati City Rep, Luis Campos Jr. has called for additional funding of up to P3 billion for the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) to bolster the government’s cyber security defenses.

Campos cited the need to reinforce the CICC with a highly advanced data fusion hub and a round-the-clock security operations center for threat detection, response and prevention.

“We must bolster the CICC with all the necessary cutting-edge technologies to swiftly produce actionable intelligence against all types of threat actors – from thrill seekers and hacktivists to cybercriminals and cyber terrorists,” Campos said.

Campos noted that the CICC–which is the inter-agency body