In a recent discussion with the local IT media, leading technology solutions provider Netpoleon Philippines shared how the steady progress of virtual crimes can now go beyond the cyber realm and directly affecting people’s lives.
Francis Goh, Managing Director of Netpoleon Group of Companies, compared this unsettling development to a scene in the film “The Matrix” where the character Agent Smith (who is a computer program) got out of the system into the real world.
“This hacking thing… it’s jumping over from the cyber to the physical world. It’s real, and it’s happening,” Goh said as he shared actual cases that show how one can hack into almost everything nowadays, including an automated car, an airplane, a nuclear plant, and even a pacemaker.
He also pointed out last year’s big Sony incident, where vast amount of data including personal information of Sony Pictures employees, emails and correspondence among the workforce, information about executives’ salaries, and copies of then-unreleased Sony films were leaked for public consumption.
The hack resulted in the scrapping of major deals and plans, media and public frenzy from the uncovered confidential information, and a huge loss in revenues from the stolen films, amounting to hundreds of dollars in total damage.
This case of a massive data breach on an entertainment company, according to Goh, put a renewed focus on network security.
“We should be looking at this security situation in a different perspective. It is not about viruses anymore,” Goh reiterated as he recalls some experts’ opinions of how the Sony hack was made using an orchestrated attack that has the hallmarks of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).
With the steady increase of cybercrimes in the country in recent years, Filipino corporations and the government have also been in a constant battle to protect their systems from security attacks.
When asked about how it is like working with the Philippine government on cyber security, Netpoleon Philippines General Manager Sharie Marasigan said the administration is now more mindful when it comes to possible data breaches.
“The government has driven awareness and acceptance on these kinds of things. In fact, they are ramping up a lot of IP security projects before this year ends. And it’s beyond firewall and IPS. It’s beyond the perimeters of security. We’re talking about visibility and proactively mitigating hackers out there,” said Marasigan.
However, Regional Director of the Netpoleon Group of Companies Danny Yap admitted that it is not as easy because of the sluggish process within the system.
“When it comes to decision from the government, usually it wouldn’t be so fast. I worked with governments across the ASEAN region, and most of them were very careful in selecting technologies and service providers. Perhaps because they have a responsibility towards the citizens. This is public funds, after all,” said Yap.
Status of the current cyber war
The media session with Netpoleon executives in the Philippines was done simultaneously with the company’s annual conference last October 14 at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati.
The event — aptly called the Netpoleon Solutions Day — advocates consciousness and understanding of current cyber security threats and its effects on enterprises as well as the general public.
Corporate organizations, NGOs, and government bodies who are all most likely to be targeted by such threats were present in the one-day symposium.
This year’s theme dealt with mastering the Art of Defense, emphasizing the need for organizations across various industries to devise a solid defense strategy that would safeguard their data and assets in the ongoing war against cyber criminals.
Industry specialists from some of Netpoleon’s partner vendors — namely Arbor Networks, A10 Networks, BlueCat Networks, Blue Coat Systems, Brocade Communications Systems, CheckPoint Software Technologies, Dell Sonic Wall, and HP Enterprise Security — shared their expertise on modern cyber attacks and offered possible security solutions that could counter such assaults.
“With this annual Solutions Day, we are trying to promote the awareness of companies on security issues to make sure that they spend time thinking about these things,” stressed Goh.
