Philippines-US alliance can address challenges – official

MANILA, Philippines — The United States’ top diplomat for East Asia yesterday expressed confidence that the US-Philippine alliance can address current and emerging challenges, including cybersecurity threats.

“We’re committed to being flexible and adjusting to new challenges, and I’m confident our treaty alliance can do that,” US State Assistant Secretary Daniel Kritenbrink said at a forum organized by the US embassy in Manila and De La Salle University.

“In fact, I would argue that we’re already doing that and if you look at the bilateral strategic dialogue, it’s not just focused on security, but it’s virtually focused on every issue from economics, security, trade, people-to-people ties and some of these transnational challenges and I think we’re already doing that,” he added.

The Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US provides that the two countries will come to each other’s aid in case of armed attacks on their forces, aircraft and vessels.

Kritenbrink also discussed the Indo-Pacific region as the most dynamic and fastest growing region in the world, emphasizing the need to revitalize US alliances and partnerships including with the Philippines.

The US, he said, is not asking the Philippines to choose sides as Washington supports the country’s independent foreign policy.

“Everywhere I go I would be asked, ‘Are you trying to force us to choose between you and China?’ That’s not our game,” Kritenbrink said.

“We don’t want you to choose, we want you to have choices. We want you to be able to make your own decisions and free from coercion. If you can do that, we can do that, together we are better off,” he stated.

The official is in Manila from Jan. 18-21 to participate in the 10th Philippines-US Bilateral Strategic Dialogue (BSD).

The BSD serves as a platform for the Philippines and US to affirm the longstanding alliance and friendship, discuss current challenges and identify new areas for cooperation at the working group and senior officials’ levels.

The 9th BSD was held in Washington in November 2021. The two countries take turns hosting the meeting.

Cybersecurity plan

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is finalizing a national cybersecurity plan to address concerns on the resilience against cyberattacks of the country’s ICT infrastructure.

Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, ICT Undersecretary for public affairs and foreign relations, said that information security governance and risk management measures to be adopted will be at par with globally recognized standards.

“We are finalizing the National Cybersecurity Plan, which will institutionalize the adoption and implementation of Information Security Governance and Risk Management approaches. These globally recognized standards shall provide the government a systematic and methodical practice of ensuring the protection of our mission-critical and non-critical infostructure,” Lamentillo said.

“The government shall also build up its capability and capacity for quick response and recovery through the establishment of the National Computer Emergency Response Team (NCERT),” Lamentillo said.

Cybersecurity has been one of the areas of concern raised at the World Economic Forum 2023 in Davos, Switzerland, attended by a Philippine delegation led by President Marcos.

Experts at Davos expect 2023 to be a consequential year for cybersecurity as economic and geopolitical instability breaks out in regions around the globe. These developments will include an expanded threat landscape and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

“There’s a gathering cyber storm,” Sadie Creese, a professor of Cyber Security at the University of Oxford, said during an interview at the WEF annual meeting in Davos. “This storm is brewing, and it’s really hard to anticipate just how bad that will be.”

Experts noted that cyberattacks such as phishing, ransomware and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are already on the rise.

Cloudflare, a major US cybersecurity firm that provides protection services for over 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies, found that DDoS attacks – which entail overwhelming a server with a flood of traffic to disrupt a network or webpage – increased last year by 79 percent year-on-year.

“There’s been an enormous amount of insecurity around the world,” Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, stated during the annual meeting. “I think 2023 is going to be a busy year in terms of cyber attacks.”

The DICT has been forging digital cooperation agreements with other countries, with cybersecurity one of the priority areas for cooperation. – Rainier Allan Ronda