The world has wholly adopted the digital lifestyle. We depend on the Internet, cyberspace, and computers to communicate, pay bills, manage businesses, travel, and even gain an education.

However, the transition to digital technology has allowed bad actors to circumvent existing systems to commit online fraud. With the rapid advancement in digital technology, online fraud crimes have increased dramatically over the past five years.

During the inaugural UnionBank Innovation Festival, executives of UnionBank of the Philippines, Globe Group, Smart Communications, and Converge ICT Solutions signed a memorandum of understanding to reinforce cybersecurity and combat financial crimes through fraud prevention and data sharing measures.

"Digital banking has brought significant growth for UnionBank and even better user experience for our customers during the pandemic. The benefit of being able to do your banking anytime, anywhere helped Filipinos make it through the crisis," UnionBank chief technology and operations officer and chief transformation officer Henry Aguda said.

The partnership believes cybersecurity poses the biggest threat in the technology spectrum. Bad actors are always ahead of the curve in abusing technology-controlled devices to commit cybercrimes, including thefts and frauds. With technology protocols still being developed and evolving gradually, it is challenging to avoid such cyber-attacks.