Bangladesh officials study cybersecurity in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – High-ranking cabinet officials from Bangladesh recently visited the Philippines to learn about business process outsourcing (BPO) and information and communications technology (ICT) including cybersecurity.

Managed by the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) in collaboration with Management and Training International (MTI) Limited in Bangladesh, the study tour and workshop included visits to private, government, and academic institutions – the ICT Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), KLab Cyscorpions Inc., Asia Pacific College, Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) and NOW Corp.

Of grave concern among the Bangladeshi officials is the need for clear strategic directions on cybersecurity initiatives. During his lecture on this topic, Mel Velasco Velarde, CEO of NOW Corp. and AIJC, discussed specific cases of security breaches that happened with big multinational firms such as Facebook, Wall Street Journal, Ubiquity, Barracuda, LinkedIn, Harmony and others including government-induced errors in cybersecurity.

 Velarde emphasized the need for organizations to meet the “reasonable security” requirement (known as the “20 Critical Security Controls” or CSCs) prescribed by top global private and governmental cybersecurity inter-agencies.