The Philippine Air Force has tapped the country’s largest and only integrated telco PLDT, its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. and the Asian Institute of Management to train its officers in handling cybersecurity threats.
Twenty PAF officers are joining the pilot run of the country’s first Online Cybersecurity Executive Course offered by AIM’s School of Executive Education and Lifelong Learning with PLDT’s Chief Information Security Officer Angel T. Redoble among its roster of cybersecurity experts and leading practitioners teaching the course.
“PLDT Inc. has fulfilled a vital role in helping the national government in protecting our nation's cybersecurity domain. However, as we continue to improve, the same happens to the threats that surround us. It is in this note that the Command finds it imperative to create a pool of highly skilled Officers who will take the lead in protecting the Command from any form of adversary through strategic means,” said PAF Lt Gen Allen T Paredes in a letter to PLDT chair and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan.
"The vulnerability to cyber-attacks is not unique to the Philippine cyberspace. Every country is also a target," Redoble said.
"Over the years, the PLDT group has been investing in improving its cybersecurity capabilities to make sure we are able to combat cyber threats. Today's 'cyber warriors' do not sleep, because their enemies are always awake," Redoble added.
The Online Cybersecurity Executive Course tackles cybersecurity through three dimensions: leadership, management, and technology. It is designed for organizations and businesses with a presence in cyberspace, specifically for their (1) managers and leaders who deal with cybersecurity challenges at the operational level, and (2) C-Suites and executives who deal with strategic cybersecurity issues and policies.
The course will give participants an in-depth understanding of the importance of an organization-wide approach to cybersecurity, and enable them to understand, assess, and address the impact of cyber risk to develop strategies and policies to ensure their organizations’ cybersecurity.
The Online Cybersecurity Executive course will be delivered over ten (10) half-days via Zoom video conference by the Asian Institute of Management and PLDT-Smart in October 2020. The program is open to the public. Executives and managers should register for the course if they want to learn how to build cyber-resilient organizations from renowned.
This is part of the PLDT Group’s partnership with PAF to help improve its cybersecurity capabilities. Under the agreement, the PLDT Group, through its Cyber Security Operations Group (CSOG), will also enhance the military service's cyber operations and upgrade the security of its digital infrastructure, in addition to training PAF’s “Cyber warriors”.
The partnership agreement also includes ePLDT’s Security Operation Center for PAF, which will provide PAF with their own dashboard to monitor their own cybersecurity operations, as well as a cyber intelligence platform to protect PAF’s infrastructure against cyber threats.
The AIM's School of Executive Education and Lifelong Learning and PLDT-Smart's strategic partnership to offer this Online Cybersecurity Executive Course was sealed via a virtual MOA signing ceremony last month, led by AIM President and Dean Dr Jikyeong Kang and PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan.
"The partnership is timely to make organizations protect its technology-based innovations since, according to research, potential economic loss due to cybersecurity incidents in the Philippines can reach as much as US$3.5 billion. In addition to safeguarding organizations from monetary losses and securing systems and data from theft and damage, cybersecurity is important to keep customers and investors assured of their safety and privacy. I enjoin all organizations in the country to look at cybersecurity as an integral component of their growth and survival strategy,” Dr Kang said.
