DITO Telecommunity, as a critical component of its push to launch commercially by March 2021, and as announced during the Senate Hearing has recently inaugurated the proverbial brain of its operations, the Network and Security Operations Center last December 9, 2020 with no less than the Philippine National Security Adviser, the Honorable Secretary Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. in attendance.
(fr L-R: DITO Chief Administrative Officer Adel Tamano, CHINATEL Representative Mr. Ping Lailu, National Security Adviser Sec. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., DITO Chief Technology Officer Retired Major General Rodolfo Santiago, and DICT Representative Retired Major General Pompeo Limbo.
In his speech during the ceremony, DITO Chief Adminsitrative Officer, Retired Major General Rodolfo Santiago stressed on the important role the DITO Command Center plays in the future success of the third telecom player.
“This facility, the brain of the DITO network has given us the opportunity to monitor the health and performance of our network and manage major communications events, as this state-of-the-art facility now gives us situational awareness and a common operational picture of the whole of DITO Telecommunity. In times of major network events or crisis, this is where we manage those events. The DITO command center is a demonstration of the maturity of our network operations and our commitment to ensure information security.” Santiago said.
He added that within the NOC is the Security Operations Center or the SOC where qualified officers ensure that the DITO system, the entire network, including soon-to-be subscribers are free from any internal or external security threats.
The Chief Technology Officer further said, “Our SOC is headed by patriots, these are men who have served the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the country for many years. In DITO, they continue to stand guard to ensure that fears about security remain unfounded.”
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. in his keynote address echoed this statement by General Santiago when he said, “I am happy to note that there are people that I know in cybersecurity before in the Armed Forces who have been recruited by another cybersecurity guy, a telco guy and they are all manning the Security Operations Center, an all-Filipino cybersecurity team. I saw them all there.”
The NSA further said, “I do not need to emphasize time and again but DITO is really a Filipino company in all forms as far as we are concerned. I am happy to be here because in the past, when the two other telcos came out, they had no regulations that they went through. You can just imagine what this company, DITO had to go through, a lot of regulations that the two other telcos did not.”
General Esperon was referring to the submission of a cybersecurity plan that passed scrutiny across various government agencies, the DICT, NTC, and the NSA as part of the selection process, among many other security provisions not required from the other telecom companies. In addition, the National Security Adviser cited that DITO has complied with 12 out of the 12 provisions of the National Cyber Security Plan, with the establishment of the DITO NOC and SOC as item number 12 on the list.
General Santiago added, “The NOC and SOC is just one of the inroads we have made in the DITO roll-out the past few months. We have recently announced that we now have over 1,900 towers, laid out more than 12,000 kilometers of fiber, have successfully tested our 5G capabilities, and are now in the process of undergoing a friendly user test to ensure that come March 2021, we are ready.”
“We have often mentioned in our statements the desire of DITO to use leapfrog technology to bring faster, more affordable connectivity to the Filipino people. And today, with the inauguration of our NOC and SOC, as well as the other milestones we have hit, again, bring us one step closer to be of true service to the country,” ended General Santiago.
