DICT eyes World Bank, South Korea financial aid for cybersecurity

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is eyeing getting a World Bank (WB) loan or overseas development assistance (ODA) from South Korea to embark on an aggressive buildup of the country’s cyberspace defense, connectivity and data center infrastructure.

Jeffrey Ian Dy, ICT undersecretary for cybersecurity, connectivity and upskilling, said that for the year, they have an allocation of approximately P300 million to pursue initiatives on improving the country’s cybersecurity posture.

“But we are also being offered ODA of $20 million by (South) Korea. We are also studying a $40 million loan by World Bank for our cybersecurity requirements,” Dy told The STAR over the weekend.

He said that the potential loan amount being discussed with the WB was a hefty $300 million, since it will also include funding for initiatives on connectivity and data center infrastructure projects.

The proposed loan had been freshly discussed with the WB when DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy and Dy were in Washington earlier this month.

“The total loan is $300 million for connectivity, cybersecurity and data center requirements,” Dy said.

The DICT executive said that the department was planning to embark on an aggressive ramp up of their National Computer Emergency Response Team (NCERT) and National Security Operations Center (NSOC) to beef up the country’s cyberdefense posture, especially the capability to guard critical information infrastructure or CII.

This was key, he said, especially since President Marcos had just approved the five-year National Cybersecurity Plan 2023-2028 last Feb. 6. “(The) NCERT and NSOC are primarily for detection, and response to attacks against our CIIs,” Dy said

He pointed out that the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, which is also in the process of acquiring digital forensic cybersecurity and investigation tools, was focused on cybercrime and law enforcement on cyberspace which covers scams and fraud.

The DICT, Dy said, was more about protecting or defending the country’s CII.

“So, our focus is establishment of the NCERT, NSOC, defense and intelligence work, malware analysis to help others identify new malwares, etc.,” he explained.