00:00 [Music]
00:08 Welcome back right here on The Exchange
00:11 where your business is our business.
00:13 I'm Rico Gizon.
00:15 [Music]
00:21 How does the country compare to other Southeast Asian nations
00:24 in terms of cyber defense and what best practices can we learn
00:27 from our neighbors?
00:29 Let's now have an exchange with Stephen Sherman of Palo Alto Networks
00:32 joining us now from Singapore.
00:35 Stephen, great to have you with us.
00:36 Are you concerned with all this hacking that's taking place here
00:39 in the Philippines of major government agencies?
00:44 Firstly, mabuhay, Rico.
00:46 Thank you.
00:47 Definitely, I'm concerned and I'm so concerned.
00:51 I've been to the Philippines three times in the last two months.
00:55 So that shows my level of concern and interest to help.
01:00 Interest to help?
01:01 How are you helping us?
01:04 So, I mean, there's several elements.
01:07 There's the public sector and, of course, there's the private sector.
01:10 I mean, the most recent incident, of course, is Philippine Health.
01:14 I think this is an excellent example where you see public sector
01:18 government organizations that have a lot of personal data.
01:23 They probably have IT systems that are not up to date to the highest
01:29 standards of what's expected to protect personal data.
01:34 I hear comments about AI as a double-edged sword.
01:38 The reality is hackers are using AI to steal information,
01:42 so the response at a minimum is organizations need to use AI
01:47 to protect oneself.
01:48 It's the analogy, if you go to a gunfight, don't bring a knife.
01:52 So that's important.
01:54 So you think it's the budget, not enough investments are being made
01:58 for cyber defense in our government agencies which contain tens of
02:04 millions of data and information?
02:09 Yeah, so that's a great question.
02:11 Budget is obviously important.
02:14 Secondly is to have the right tools, you know,
02:17 leveraging AI and machine learning and precision AI.
02:21 And the third thing is having the skill set.
02:23 So a government department can have a budget,
02:26 but if you buy the wrong tool sets, it's, you know,
02:29 it's still inefficient.
02:31 You can have the right tools, the budget,
02:33 but if you don't have the skills then you also have a problem.
02:36 I mean the attack Medusa, which was at Philippine Health,
02:40 is a very new threat.
02:42 It's totally new.
02:43 So the landscape and the threat is evolving constantly.
02:47 So skills and being ready, being proactive is critical.
02:51 Indeed, you have to be proactive.
02:53 And we were speaking with the National Privacy Commission and only four,
02:57 five, or even six people, I mean, are being investigated
03:01 and are not even behind bars.
03:04 That means our laws are weak.
03:06 The implementation is weak.
03:08 There's no political will to put these cyber criminals behind bars.
03:12 But, Stephen, is this an isolated case,
03:15 this hacking and the rise of cyber criminality in the Philippines,
03:19 or is this commonplace in the rest of Southeast Asia?
03:26 Yeah, I'm afraid to say the level of incidents is increasing week on week.
03:33 I see this every week now.
03:35 So it's not specific to the Philippines.
03:37 Why is the Philippines a target?
03:39 Well, Philippine Health is a good example.
03:41 You have a lot of data which is being collected.
03:45 It's online.
03:46 Criminals want this data to conduct fraud, identity theft, et cetera.
03:51 So that's their end goal.
03:53 It's across the region.
03:54 And I didn't answer your first question, how are we helping?
03:57 We work with organizations in the public sector to make sure they pick
04:01 the right solutions.
04:03 We help them build a robust cyber defense strategy.
04:07 We skill up the personnel, and, importantly, to be proactive.
04:10 Not to wait for an incident.
04:12 If you wait for an incident, I mean, the damage is done.
04:15 The comment about we hope this will be the last incident,
04:19 I heard that comment.
04:20 We hope.
04:21 Hope is not a strategy.
04:22 I mean, Palo Alto Networks is here to assist, to be proactive,
04:26 to make sure this does not happen.
04:28 Our line of work is to provide 100% every day the ability to protect
04:34 an organization, private or public.
04:36 Hope is not a strategy.
04:37 So, Stephen, what is the observation right now of Palo Alto Networks?
04:41 You have PhilHealth.
04:42 Now you have the Philippines Statistics Authority.
04:44 Does it end there, or could other government agencies also be hacked?
04:49 And we could see a revelation from these government departments very soon.
04:55 Well, I don't want to sound alarmist.
04:58 First, the two points I will make is I suspect there will be more
05:02 hacks coming and ransomware and phishing scams.
05:05 But the more important part is we are ready.
05:07 You know, ourselves as an organization, Palo Alto Networks,
05:10 we are heavily invested into the Philippines.
05:12 We have an official entity in the Philippines.
05:15 We're committed to work with the Philippines government to make sure every
05:20 government department, small or large or medium,
05:23 is prepared from a cyber standpoint to be proactively ready for this.
05:28 Because here's the thing, Rico, digital services is critical for the
05:33 Philippines economy to develop.
05:36 We can't say, "Oh, let's just turn off the digital connection and connectivity."
05:41 We have to do this.
05:43 But in order to do that, you must have a robust cyber security framework,
05:47 and we're here to deliver that outcome.
05:49 So that's the end goal.
05:51 So we're here to help.
05:52 We're committed.
05:54 I don't want to sound alarmist, but you've got to have the mindset there
05:57 will be more incidents, almost surely.
06:00 I mean, a few things in life are definite.
06:03 A cyber attack coming is almost certain.
06:06 Thank you so much for this regional cyber security exchange.
06:09 Stephen Sherman of Palo Alto Networks joining us from Singapore.
06:14 And before we go, here are words from Apple CEO Tim Cook on security and privacy.
06:19 If those of us in positions of responsibility fail to do everything in our power
06:25 to protect the right of privacy, we risk something far more valuable than money.
06:32 We risk our way of life.
06:34 And this is the exchange that makes sense of the facts and the figures
06:37 and the ups and downs of the business cycle because your business is our business.
06:42 I'm Rico Hizo, and thanks for watching CNN Philippines.
06:44 News you can use.
06:46 News you can trust.
06:48 [Music]
