A MEMBER of Congress has raised the need for government to subsidize training courses to produce more cybersecurity experts who would protect the country from recurring threats of cyberattacks.
“To quickly address the dire shortage of certified cybersecurity specialists and professionals in our country, the government and private sector should roll out a targeted training and certification program with costs at least partially subsidized by government,” Bohol Rep. Kristine Alexie B. Tutor said in a statement on Wednesday.
She said the subsidy will be included in the budgets of government agencies’ information technology (IT) training, state universities and colleges (SUCs), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
“Aspirants should still be screened for cybersecurity certification training,” said Ms. Tutor, who heads the Civil Service and Professional Regulation committee in the House of Representatives.
Last month, the National Association of Data Protection Officers of the Philippines (NADPOP) said the country needs about 180,000 cybersecurity professionals to cover 10% of digitalized companies in healthcare, finance business process outsourcing (BPOs), and utilities like water, telecommunications and electricity.
“The certification process is already there, so we only have to boost it to produce more cybersecurity experts,” said Ms. Tutor, noting that instituting a licensure exam on cybersecurity “will take much more time.”
In the meantime, she also called on universities and colleges to upgrade their existing cybersecurity degree programs.
Cybersecurity company Kaspersky reported last March that the Philippines ranked second among countries with the most cyberattacks worldwide in 2022. Information and Communications Secretary Ivan John E. Uy acknowledged that the country only had about 200 certified cybersecurity experts last year.
Meanwhile, hackers behind the Sept. 22 ransomware attack on state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) have already released packets of personal data after the government refused to comply with their demand for $300,000 (P17 million).
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said that data of members who were exposed in the data breach could be sold to scammers. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
