Fortifying our cybersecurity posture | Inquirer Opinion

When we say defense these days, we do not just refer to the physical space—the land, sea, and air in our territory.

Digital Defense Report 2023, released by Microsoft last month, found that a Chinese state-sponsored actor, Raspberry Typhoon, has been showing sustained interest in the South China Sea amid growing tensions in the area. The group has been targeting government agencies in charge of trade, intelligence, and finance, as well as military and corporate entities associated with critical infrastructure such as information and communication systems, power grids, and transportation networks. It has been conducting its attacks focused on countries surrounding the South China Sea.

But Raspberry Typhoon is just one of the numerous threats confronting us. Across the world, we often hear reports of hacks, data breaches, and cybercrime. In recent weeks, four government agencies—Philippine Health Insurance Corp., the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Senate, and the House of Representatives—have been attacked. These attacks undermine confidence in institutions and erode public trust by exposing sensitive and personal information managed by these institutions.

The truth is bad actors abound and are just waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. They attack anyone who is conveniently vulnerable, and who has high stakes in their information systems.

Dutch cybersecurity firm SurfShark revealed in its Global Data Breach study that as of October 2023, the Philippines ranked 17th out of 250 countries in data breaches. Since 2004, at least 124 million accounts have been breached in the Philippines, accounting for 0.7 percent of the total global number.

Cybersecurity is a crucial parallel track of the administration’s digital transformation agenda. President Marcos has time and again said we should pursue a digitally-driven economic growth and conduct the affairs of government electronically. While efforts are being made toward this end, through the earnest collaboration of the public and private sectors, much is left to be desired when it comes to building and fortifying our cyber defense posture, not…