「日刊まにら新聞」ウェブ

Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. will visit the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) of Singapore as the military works to strengthen its cyber warfare capability.

"Next week I'm going to Singapore to study their DIS, Digital and Intelligence Service. They created a new service, it's called DIS, it is equivalent or the same level of the Army, Airforce, Navy, DIS, is the fourth. DIS focused on cyber warfare. So they made it because they recognized that it is important that they are capable of fighting in the cyber domain," he said.

"That is the realization of almost all armed forces around the world. So it is the same with us and the order of the president when he came-in in his inauguration, his focus is digitization, so that includes our cyber (security)," he added.

He noted that his visit to other countries can help the military in the establishment of its cyber command.

Brawner said that the AFP is experiencing cyber attacks "almost everyday".

"Almost everyday, based on the statistics that I saw, almost everyday... we have a system that monitors (cyber attacks) but they are not successful," he said.

However, Brawner admitted that there was some information from the military that previously leaked due to cyber attacks but he emphasized that these are "not vital information".

"Some information has leaked but this information was not at a high level in national security" he said.

Several government agencies including the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the private website of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were recently attacked by cyber criminals.

Based on the statistics of the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) , the cybercrimes recorded in the first quarter of 2024 have increased by 21.84 percent.

It has recorded 4,469 cybercrimes from January to March 2024, compared to 3,668 cases during the same period in 2023. The ACG noted that there is an average of around 45 cases in the past three months. Robina Asido/DMS