Resolution seeks to check PH ability vs cyber attacks

Senator Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV has urged the Senate to conduct an inquiry to determine whether or not the Philippines is ready for cyberattacks following the spread of a ransom malware that wreaked global havoc on computers of governments and companies around the world.

“We want to hear from the experts from government and also from our Pinoy tech firms on whether our country is prepared for these cyberattacks and what should be done to prevent them,” Aquino said in filing Senate Resolution No. 381.

“Cyberattacks are a real threat to Filipinos. We need to make sure that bank accounts, online passwords, personal information, and both private and public information systems are protected,” the senator added.

Aquino is the chairman of the Senate committee on science and technology.

Attackers reportedly used the program “WanaCryptor 2.0 or WannaCry” to infiltrate at least 300,000 machines all over the world.

The said program locks and encrypts the computer files or ransom and if unpaid, the ransom increases over time until the end of a countdown when all files are destroyed.

The cyberattack infiltrated computers in at least 150 countries around the world. Among the major victims are delivery giant FedEx, the National Health Service of Britain, Russia’s Interior Ministry and several universities in China.

While there is no reported Ransomware attack in the Philippines, Aquino said it is imperative for Congress to ensure that private information of Filipinos, as well as online systems and services, are secure.

“We shouldn’t be too confident. We need to make sure our country is prepared so that our systems are unaffected in the event of a cyberattack,” Aquino said.

The resolution also seeks a thorough scrutiny into the implementation of the National Cybersecurity Plan 2022, which the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) unveiled earlier this month.

The National Cybersecurity Plan, among other things, seeks to establish the National Computer Emergency Response Team (NCERT) to enable the government to swiftly respond and recover from cyberattacks.