Countries like United States, Canada and many other developed nations are observing cybersecurity awareness every month of October. This is to encourage every individual citizens to be part of their campaign for online security and safety.
The United States of America, is observing National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) every October since 2003, a collaborative effort between the government and industry to ensure every American has the resources they need to stay safer and more secure online, while increasing resiliency during cyber-threats.
European Countries also observed October as the European Cybersecurity Awareness Month (ECSM), to raise awareness on cyber security threats, promote cyber security among citizens and organizations. ECSM also provides resources to protect its citizens online, through education and sharing of good practices.
The internet is made of network of shared resources, thus securing it is a shared responsibility. This is the Canadian Cybersecurity Awareness theme for this year, “Our Internet, our cyber security.” The event will highlight the country’s initiatives, programs and other information to help individuals, groups, organizations, business and the community as a whole to be safe and secure online.
PH to hold cybersecurity conference
Of course the Philippines is not behind in terms of technology awareness, uses and application especially the internet. Filipinos are among the top countries with highest numbers of “netizens.”
Keeping that in mind, the Philippine through its Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has been intensifying its cybersecurity stance, treating it as an emerging critical area in national security. In fact this year, the Philippine through DICT will hold the second Philippine International Cybersecurity Conference (PICC) on October 25-26, 2018 at the Grand Regal Hotel in Davao City.
PICC will showcase the country’s journey to national goal of cyber resiliency. The event will highlight the importance of emerging 21st century cyber security challenges including asymmetric threats from different actors.
Bringing together over 400 delegates, the 2nd annual Philippines International Cybersecurity Conference (PICC) will provide an overview of top cybersecurity challenges with an aim to enhance the role of the government, the private sectors and civil societies in countering cybercrimes.
The event will feature the local and international cyber security, law enforcement, and counter terrorism strategies and techniques.
Participants will be given the chance to examine the current cyber security challenges and discover ways to improve their cyber security stance.
Among the topic to be discussed during the event include: The Philippine cyber threat landscape and the national cybersecurity strategies, cryptocurrency and the darknet, child online protection, and many more.
There will also be panel discussions on: the global challenges for cybersecurity and different strategies in cyberspace, Critical infrastructure protection – the complexities associated with cybersecurity, best practices for successful implementation of cybersecurity and the global cybercrime cooperation strategies.
The event will also be an avenue to foster public-private partnership, information sharing and exchange, strategy and policy development, while increasing public awareness especially to the serving government officials, private industries, and civil-society leaders who are expected to be attending the event.
According to DICT, the Philippine government is committed to strengthen its cyber security posture. “We strive for cyber resiliency, a higher-level objective of ensuring the delivery of services and functioning of the society despite adverse cyber events.”
The road to becoming a cyber resilient nation is not at all wide and easy. However, DICT has established the government ICT framework, and have developed its implementation strategies, especially to building manpower capabilities and enabling technologies.
According to DICT, achieving this goal takes a whole lot of work and responsibility. Because protecting the nation’s cyber space is not a duty of the DICT alone but is a shared responsibility among all Filipinos.
Cooperation from among the different sectors of society is deemed necessary in achieving this common goal. “We must always bear in mind that the road to cyber resiliency may be a rocky one but it is nevertheless, attainable.”
“Hence, the PICC is one way for all of us to get together and see how far we’ve come and how close we are to our goal of cyber resiliency,” said DICT on their press release as they are inviting everyone to come and join the event.
PICC 2018 is FREE admission and everyone is welcome to attend.
For more information about the Philippines International Cybersecurity Conference please visit: https://www.phcybercon.com
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