Businesses told to take cyber threats seriously

CEBU, Philippines - Companies are warned anew to take the growing cyber risks seriously apart from focusing mainly on the obvious external and internal business threats.

Cebu Business Club (CBC) president Gordon Alan "Dondi" Joseph yesterday warned some members of the Cebu business community of the rampant cyber attacks that are now getting larger and faster, and can even hit banks as well as export companies.

Joseph said that while managing corporation risk covers a broader spectrum, that needs a special focus and even a third party management team, managing cyber-risks is now highly recommended and should be given utmost importance by companies.

Joseph joined other advocates against cyber-criminals, saying companies should take cyber-risk a serious threat to business growth.

In an earlier interview, information security consultant Dexter D. Laggui  urged consumers as well as companies to intensify their online protection measures as counts of cyber robbers and hackers is significantly growing.

Cyberthreat nowadays is becoming one of the most desired avenues for criminals, especially for robbery, as doing so does not give higher physical risks, but only needs little personal information of the possible victim, and money transfer can be smoothly done, Laggui said.

Phishing is a more well known and fast growing cybercrime in the Philippines, said Laggui, adding that a lot of cases have been filed already on money transfer hijacking, dominantly from OFW remittances, and some other payment system facilities.

Phishing, a conscious misspelling of the word “fishing”, is a form of cyber crime which involves stealing confidential data from a user’s computer and subsequently using the data to steal the user’s money.

Laggui, who is the president of Laggui & Associates Inc., said that his company had been dealing with these kinds of cases of which hundreds of thousand pesos "real" money transfer online happening via transnational money transfer highway.

Companies, specifically the micro and small operations are also encouraged to protect their company information, online transaction and other important data, as small companies are not spared from being one of the target victims.

He further recommended to use a highly protected email address domains, like gmail, or use intra-company dedicated email addresses. (FREEMAN)