Government urged to boost cyber security

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Citing recent cyber attacks on several government websites allegedly by “Chinese hackers,” Vice President Jejomar Binay has stressed the need to beef up the country’s cyber security infrastructure.

Speaking at the Cyber Security Enhancement Workshop of the National Development College of the Philippines on Monday, Binay said, “The country’s information systems may be less tangible than its physical borders, but these are in no way less valuable to a nation’s sovereignty.”

He noted that the Internet had become “not only a border-less venue of information technology but also a most resilient and reliable infrastructure for personal propaganda.”

He decried the “recent cyber security threats, including the defacement of several government websites by Chinese hackers as a result of the ongoing dispute (between the Philippines and China) at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.”

“This new frontier of crime has encouraged the creative genius of the more misguided specialists of the world. Left untamed and unbridled, this new breed of criminals will push the very limits of systems security for the same reason that adventurers since the dawn of time have attempted to scale the peaks of Everest—because it’s there,” he said.

Binay said that “if no global collaborative effort is credibly organized and upheld, it is doubtful any country will be equipped to readily and effectively respond to the cyber attacks of the future.”

He recalled the “Chinese hacktivists” and their Philippine counterparts who recently “engaged in a raging battle amid the events at Panatag Shoal.”

“The cyber attack was reportedly started by unidentified Chinese hackers defacing some Philippine government portals, resulting in the intermittent inaccessibility of some government sites. Jerry E. Esplanada