Phl government still vulnerable to cyber attacks

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government still does not have a strong technological infrastructure to protect its system from cyber criminals, a software company official said Friday.

"We are not yet at that stage that we are comfortable with our technological infrastructure," Raul Cortez, head of Microsoft Philippines' Legal and Corporate Affairs, in a roundtable discussion held in Makati City.

Cortez, however, said that the Philippine government is already taking steps of improving infrastructure.

Meanwhile, he said that even with reservation the government is already preparing of migrating into the Cloud.

"The government is doing it right now. They are starting," he said, adding that migrating into the Cloud is "the way of the future."

Microsoft has launched "Play It Safe," a global campaign to create awareness of the connection between malware and piracy.

As part of the campaign, the software giant has released a study by IDC and the National University of Singapore titled "The Link Between Pirated Software and Cybersecurity Breaches."

The study shows that enterprises in the Asia Pacific alone are expected to spend nearly $230 billion this year to deal with issues caused by pirated software laced with malware.

It said that the world's highest enterprise losses from cybersecurity breaches, carried out by organized cybercriminals, will come from Asia Pacific with $138 billion.

The study also shows that 32 percent of the pirated software in enterprise is installed by employees.

Cortez, meanwhile, admitted that there are no existing data that would help determine how much have been lost from cybersecurity breaches in the Philippines, particularly its government.

Last year, hackers attacked defaced Philippine government websites at the height of the sea dispute between the country and China.

Cortez said that Microsoft has been reaching out to the government and they have offered to help in improving the security features of its infrastructure.

He said that there have been close-door meetings between Microsoft officials with government agencies, including those under the executive branch and those involved in law enforcement.

"We are proactively with the government to improve [the system]," he said.

In case the Philippines suffers more hacker attacks, Cortez said that Microsoft, if asked by the government, would be willing to help.

"We are waiting for a request depending on the situation," he said.