Phl eyes cybersecurity experts development
The Philippines has only around 200 certified cybersecurity experts compared to the 3,000 experts in Singapore as earlier reported by DICT Secretary John Ivan Uy
Daily TribuneThe Philippines has only around 200 certified cybersecurity experts compared to the 3,000 experts in Singapore as earlier reported by DICT Secretary John Ivan Uy
The Philippine government must consider developing cybersecurity experts early as the country continues to grapple with the risks of cyber threats, according to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
The lawmaker stressed that there is a need to address the shortage of cybersecurity experts in the country and an increased enrollment in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics strand in senior high school.
He added that he has filed Senate Bill 476 or the Equitable Access to Math and Science Education Act, which seeks to build a math and science high school in various provinces nationwide.
Through these, he said that potential cybersecurity talents can be recruited.
Gatchalian pointed out that there were only 612,857 senior high school students enrolled under the STEM strand, which is equivalent to only 16 percent of senior high school registration.
"Even in our basic education system, where we could potentially cultivate the talent going into cybersecurity, it's virtually non-existent," he said, adding that skills related to cybersecurity should be taught early.
"When it comes to coding, for example, I think it should be introduced as early as junior high school level so that students will be exposed and by the time they reach senior high school, they can actually do more complex tasks related to information technology. When they move to college, they can already specialize in various fields," he added.
In light of the solon's statement, the Department of Information and Communications Technology is currently pushing for short-course training programs for cybersecurity experts and software engineers.
The Philippines has only around 200 certified cybersecurity experts compared to the 3,000 experts in Singapore as earlier reported by DICT Secretary John Ivan Uy.
Earlier this year, cybersecurity company Kaspersky Security Network reported that for 2021 and more than 50 million web threat attempts were foiled in the Philippines in 2021, making the country the fourth most targeted by cybercriminals.
The report of the Kaspersky Security Network also revealed that cyber threats detected in the Philippines rose sharply by 433 percent from 2017 to 2021.
