BIZ BUZZ: A ‘Hail Mary’ for cybersecurity

Recent cyberthreats targeting not just business but also government agencies might be a cry for help—or a market cue for bigger investments to back the Philippine cyberspace.

Cybercriminals had their eyes fixed on business for big bucks for long, but just for this year, several websites of government agencies got hacked and defaced.

This, according to the Philippine Institute of Cyber Security Professionals (PICSPro), mirrored years of “underinvestment, lack of coordination and misplaced priorities.”

PICSPro chair Angel Redoble said government systems remained “alarmingly exposed” even as the Department of Information and Communications Technology moved to beef up its network.

The incidents, he noted, just proved that “the systems meant to protect our government and our people are failing.”

“We need coordinated reforms, not a patchwork of projects. That is the only way to defend the country from the new generation of cyberthreats,” he said.

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Redoble also called on industry leaders to join in boosting the country’s digital infrastructure, while also investing in a skilled workforce.

Over the past year, Filipino businesses suffered losses to fraud using digital means, which amounted to about P4 trillion, or 18 percent of the country’s economic output in 2024.

Financial institutions supervised by the central bank also lost P5.82 billion from cyberattacks last year.