Globe spending for cybersecurity reaches $90 million

MANILA, Philippines — Globe Telecom Inc. has invested around $90 million to improve its security measures, improving the capability of its digital defenses in fighting online fraud.

Globe yesterday announced that it spent nearly $90 million to upgrade its security platforms for detecting and prohibiting spam messages.

Globe has spent $110 million in building up its anti-fraud infrastructure, tracing back to the initial $20 million that it invested in security assets.

Globe chief privacy officer Irish Salandanan-Almeida underscored the importance of investing in cybersecurity solutions, saying that   criminals nowadays view personal data as valuable, knowing that sensitive information like bank details can be sold in the black market.

As such, Almeida said it is urgent for companies managing customer data to expand their digital defenses. For Globe, this means developing a cybersecurity strategy that goes as far as blocking malicious activities through a filtering system that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The reasons why scams and spam messages are so rampant now is because fraudsters want to get customer data, and so we are impressing upon our customers and our partners the importance of having the right cybersecurity culture and using appropriate cybersecurity solutions,” Almeida said.

Almeida said Globe exemplifies this by deploying a dedicated team of 97 people for data privacy and information security.