Russian IT expert warns RP against cyber terrorism

Moscow, Russia – The Philippine government must start regulating information technology (IT) to avoid cyber terrorism which could damage industries and even the government.

“There is currently no standard to use IT. The government must put in place more regulation,” Eugene Kaspersky, president and chief executive of Kaspersky Lab, leading Internet security and content management developer, told The STAR in an exclusive interview here.

According to Kaspersky, there must be more government control because IT has become a major part of people’s lives. He said computers and the Internet are used not only for businesses but also for personal transactions.

“There must be registration and control,” he stressed. Kaspersky clarified that this does not mean that the government is free to regulate the content of the things being posted on the Internet. “It is not about access,” he said. Kaspersky said it is about making the Internet a safer place for both businesses and individuals.

Early this year, government websites have been targeted by virus attacks. He said these attacks can be minimized and even eliminated if only there is a strong standard. “It is a difficult task but it must be done. It is time for the government to pay more attention.”

In Asia, Kaspersky said they have started helping governments in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore develop a stronger mechanism to protect IT.

This has been more pressing given that every year, more malware are being detected and the problem becomes more serious. “In the past the problem was cybercriminals. Now it is cybersobotage,” Kaspersky said.

Earlier, Kaspersky Lab has removed the Philippines from the list of top 20 countries that received malware attacks. The Philippines also slid in the list of countries having servers that host malicious applications from eighth place in the first quarter of 2010 to 18th place in the next quarter. The company credited this to the falling popularity of the Philippines as a host for malicious applications.

However this does not mean that the Philippines is already cleared from malware attacks because the company said that while this is a positive trend for the Philippines, this does not mean that the attacks have lessened.

The study showed that the change is only 0.2 percent for the Philippines and there was even an increase in activity of the peer-to-peer (P2P) worm Palevo, which also serves as bot-client.

The anti-virus company said that Palevo is very efficient because infected computer be placed under the control of the worm. It can spread through instant messengers like MSN, USB flash drives, and other P2P applications such as Kazaa.