In the Calabarzon leg of the competition
on September 12, team
SB53 from the National
University (NU) – Laguna
was hailed as the HackForGov winners and will
advance to the national
level. (Charmaine Odong/
PIA-4A)
CALAMBA CITY,
Laguna (PIA) – The Department of Information
and Communications
Technology (DICT) has
brought its HackForGov
Capture-the-Flag competition in the Calabarzon
region to bolster the country’s cybersecurity measures by building a pool of
cyberwarriors from among
the Filipino youth nationwide.
The DICT
through the Computer
Emergency Response
Team (CERT-PH) under
the Cybersecurity Bureau
(CSB) provided students
with hands-on experience
in cybersecurity through
the competition that challenged their skills in cryptography, web and network
security among others.
George Tardio,
division chief of DICTCERT PH, said the program was also in response
to the recent report of the
global cyber security firm
Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) showing that
the Philippines ranked
second after Mongolia
among countries most
affected by web threats
worldwide in 2022.
“The Philippines
is the second most attacked, but that doesn’t
mean that we are vulnerable or weak. They targeted
us, so as long as it is reported, I could say that we
have a strong response
against them,” Tardio said
He noted that the
HackForGov program was
designed to encourage
the Filipino youth to venture into the in-demand
field of cybersecurity and
to increase the pool of cyber-proficient individuals
in our country.
“HackForGov is specifically for students and the
academic community. Our
main objective is to attract
or redirect their careers
towards cybersecurity because the main problem
and issue in the Philippines is the lack of cybersecurity professionals,”
explained Tardio.
In the Calabarzon leg of
the competition on September 12, team SB53
from the National University (NU) – Laguna was
hailed as the HackForGov
winners and will advance
to the national level.
The runners-up were Trojans from Cavite State
University and Domie’s
Watchdog from Siena College of Taytay.
Tardio urged the youth
to be more participative
in government initiatives
aimed at bolstering the
country’s capabilities in
countering online threats
“Our message to the youth
is to be interested in cybersecurity and to participate
in hackathons or HackForGov events similar to the
Capture-The-Flag. Attend
a lot of awareness campaigns. The DICT regional
offices offer free training,
whether online or physical, and we have regional
awareness programs with
the academic community and local government
units (LGUs),” he added.
A series of qualifying
rounds will be conducted
across the country, and
the winning team from
each region will represent
their area in the HackForGov finals at the national
level next month.
The overall champion of
the National HackForGov
will have the prestigious
opportunity to join and represent the Philippines in
the ASEAN-Japan Cyber
SEA Games 2023, which
will take place in Bangkok,
Thailand. (CO
