DICT to help other govt agencies hurdle ICT issues

THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) could assist other government agencies in crafting future contracts with the private sector—especially for those that involve ICT solutions—to prevent a repeat of the passport data mess that the government is currently facing.

Allan Cabanlong, an assistant secretary at the ICT department, said the agency views the problem that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is facing as simply a matter of contract legalese, as there have been no noted or monitored data breaches so far.

“During our initial investigation, we found out that the company did not run away with the data, at least according to the previous country manager of Oberthur. The issue here is not on the technical side, but on the people side,” he said.

Nonetheless, the ICT department will be conducting an inquiry meeting on Thursday “to find out what happened — if it violates national cybersecurity in the Philippines.”

Cabanlong noted his group is willing to help agencies such as the DFA to prevent this kind of incident from happening by employing information-technology experts in contract development.

“We can assist. But the challenge is we lack experts in contract development, especially if the contract involves information technology, wherein you really have to inspect each item and ensure that everything is explicitly defined in the contract,” he said. To recall, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. claimed the passport contractor Apo Production Unit Inc., which was taken in after Oberthur withdrew from the deal in 2015, took the data when the agency terminated its contract.

This has since caused allegations and speculations that there had been a data privacy breach, which promoted the National Privacy Commission to conduct its own investigation.