GLOBE TELECOM, Inc. announced on Wednesday a partnership with the British Embassy in Manila to strengthen digital infrastructure defenses in response to growing cybersecurity concerns.
“Cybersecurity must be a top priority for both the United Kingdom and the Philippines in order to ensure the safety and security of our citizens and promote economic development and prosperity,” British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils said in a statement.
Philippine organizations faced around $1 million in losses over the past year due to cybersecurity incidents, according to a reported by connectivity cloud company Cloudflare, Inc.
Cloudflare identified insufficient investment as the main challenge for the country in cybersecurity preparedness, while many firms consider cybersecurity a top concern.
Globe has invested roughly $90 million in cybersecurity measures alone and an additional $20 million to improve its blocking system and detection of spam and scam text messages, the telco said in a statement.
International cooperation and public-private partnerships are among the strategies identified to address cybersecurity concerns, according to the Ayala-led company.
“The commitment from Globe Group and the British Embassy to assist the Philippine government in its cybersecurity efforts emphasizes the global nature of cyber threats and the importance of collaborative approaches to ad-dress these challenges effectively,” Globe said.
“The reason why scams and spam messages are so rampant now is because they (fraudsters) want to get customer data. And so we’re impressing upon our customers and partners the importance of having the right cybersecurity culture and using the appropriate cybersecurity solutions,” said Irish Salandanan-Almeida, chief privacy officer of Globe.
The company also said cybersecurity capacity building in the Philippines needs to be intensified to combat the increasing digital threats.
At the local bourse on Tuesday, shares in the company gained P10 or 0.58% to end at P1,738 each. — Ashley Erika O. Jose