CEBU CITY — Philippine cybersecurity is a "priority" for the United States, given their economic ties, an embassy official said.

The Philippine IT-BPO industry handles a huge chunk of the back office processing for US financial transactions, Press Attaché Kanishka Gangopadhyay noted.

"Something like 90 percent of all financial transactions that go through Wall Street go through the Philippines... If you want a cyberattack on the United States, all you have to do is attack the Philippines," Gangopadhyay said in a media seminar sponsored by the US Embassy in Manila.

"This is a national security priority for us. It's dangerous ground. The economic security of the United States and the economic security of the Philippines are incredibly interlinked, which is why this is an important issue for us," he added.

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The United States urges its partners to “incorporate trusted vendors as they roll out their digital infrastructure,” said Saptarshi Basu, economic officer at the US Embassy in the Philippines.

“We encourage the Philippines to look at an open system, a diversified system whereby one single vendor will not be able to dominate a company’s equipment,” he said.

“There’s American companies…there’s Japanese companies and others, we’re confident in their ability to protect data security and also could be interoperable with other trusted vendors,” he continued.

The US-supported Asia Open Radio Access Network (open RAN) Academy allows universities and network providers to test different kinds of technology, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) senior economic growth specialist Jon Avila noted.

"The aim of open RAN is, the keyword there is open, interoperable. Instead of your network being reliant on just one provider, you can have different...units that operate your system more effectively," Avila said in the same seminar.

"We think that an open network is more secure to cyberattacks and more cost-efficient as well," he added.

The virtual academy aims to set up a physical laboratory this year. While it will be based in Manila, it will also serve the entire Asia and Pacific region, he said.

The USAID's 5-year, $33-million BEACON project also aims to improve Philippine information and communications technology infrastructure. Its recent activities include training cybersecurity professionals and assisting in the government's National Broadband Program.

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Another USAID project, SPEED, seeks to expand small businesses' digital footprint. It is helping the Cebu Chamber of Commerce relaunch an online marketplace and expand digital payments in the region.

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