The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), being the Philippines’ primary agency in matters of ICT, hosted this year’s 1st ASEAN – Japan Cybersecurity Working Group Meeting on 15-16 February 2023 in Tagaytay City.
The first physical meeting since the onset of the Covid19 pandemic, this convention of representatives from ASEAN member countries and Japan aims to discuss issues surrounding cybersecurity and encourage the strengthening of cybersecurity measures in the region through joint efforts by the involved countries in mitigating cyber attacks and online criminality.
In his welcoming statement to the convening body, DICT Secretary Atty. Ivan John Uy emphasized the importance of cooperative and concerted efforts by all the member countries, with the assistance of Japan, in addressing and mitigating these issues and strengthening the ASEAN region’s cybersecurity capabilities and capacities, thereby ensuring safe, healthy, and thriving digital communities for all the ASEAN region’s citizens.
Supporting Secretary Uy’s address, DICT Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Upskilling Jeffrey Ian Dy cited recent studies that ranked the Philippines as the fourth most targeted country by cyber attacks, online scams and digital criminality in the ASEAN region; further explaining that cybersecurity issues that threaten one country will most probably affect every other country in the region, possibly creating a region-wide cybersecurity concern that would be best pre-emptively addressed in a collaborative approach.
Presided by representatives from Japan’s National Center for Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity and moderated by Mr. Arthur Glenn Maail from the ASEAN Secretariat’s Digital Economy Division, the working group meeting was attended by ICT governing body representatives from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, with representatives from Singapore joining virtually through Zoom.
