THE PHILIPPINE government should hire more highly trained experts in cybersecurity and develop data-gathering methods using artificial intelligence (AI) to deter cyberattacks, according to a data ethics expert.
“Many government agencies maintain outdated software and websites that can easily be penetrated. An audit should be done on every web portal maintained by the government to check for vulnerabilities,” Dominic Vincent D. Ligot, founder and chief technology officer of the data analytics company CirroLytix and data security research organization Data Ethics PH, told BusinessWorld in an email.
“Data about threats, vulnerabilities, and incidents should be stored, masked, and made available for research to study and build AI models on,” he said.
Each government agency, especially those engaged in intelligence gathering, should have a proper budget allocated for cybersecurity including staffing and technology costs, Mr. Ligot added.
The Philippines ranked 20th out of 161 countries with the most data breaches in the second quarter of this year, according to virtual private service provider Surfshark.
Last month, Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan John E. Uy said it would ask Congress to restore his agency’s proposed P300 million in confidential funds in its proposed P9.73-billion budget next year.
Mr. Ligot said confidential funds and intelligence funds for these agencies may be given only if they will really be used for intelligence gathering mandated under law.
He also cited the need to develop information campaigns about data ethics for the public.
“Data should be at the forefront of every culture building and the proper valuation of data needs to be instilled. Data rights are human rights,” he said. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
