THE Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) has vowed to cooperate with Singapore in the field of cybersecurity as the Philippines marks its 55 years of diplomatic relations with the city state in May 2024.
CICC executive director Alexander K. Ramos made the commitment as he welcomed students and lecturers from Singapore’s Nanyang Polytechnics, Institute of Higher Learning College East and from the Association of Information Security Professionals Singapore (AiSP) on April 10 at the National Cybercrime Hub in Bonifacio Global City.
The CICC-AiSP-WiSAP Cybersecurity Forum was co-organized by the Women in Security Alliance Philippines (WiSAP) to celebrate the collaboration between Singapore and the Philippines which began on May 16,1969.
The Philippines and Singapore are founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which was established on Aug. 8,1967 together with Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
Ramos shared with the Singaporean delegates how CICC was able to push for “zero bureaucracy” with the establishment in December 2022 of the National Cybercrime Hub as a center for collaboration with the various stakeholders in government, private sector and the academe.
“We don’t tolerate delay with communication. We don’t deal with long queues in zero bureaucracy,” he said.
“Zero bureaucracy is a tool to fight cybercrime because every minute counts,” Ramos added.
He also underscored that the ASEAN is currently the center of technological development and was optimistic that the Philippines and Singapore will continue to cooperate in the field of cybersecurity.
WiSAP chairman and president Mel Migrino shared at the forum some of the highlights in the Asia Scam Report 2023 of Gogolook.
Among the 11 countries surveyed is Asia, Filipinos are the least likely to report to authorities when they are victims of cybercrime. The survey shows that only 24.6 percent of Filipino victims of scams report to authorities because of the low rate of recovery.
Low rate of reporting by scam victims was also noted in Vietnam (26 percent ) and Korea (31.6 percent).
On the other hand, high rates of reporting by scam victims was noted in China at 55 percent and Singapore at 51.5 percent.
Scam Watch Pilipinas lead convenor Jocel De Guzman reiterated his appeal for the public to report to authorities or call the 1326 Inter-Agency Response Center hotline as soon as they fall prey to scams.