MANILA - Cisco is helping the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) improve cybersecurity in the Philippines by training networking professionals to identify and respond to various cyber threats, the company's Philippine head said on Wednesday.

Cisco Philippines managing director Karrie Ilagan said the company has evolved from a network gear vendor to a cybersecurity player because of its position in the tech industry.

"We are in a very unique position to help not just enterprises but also governments," Ilagan said in an exclusive interview with ANC's The Boss.

She explained that since 80 percent of the world's networks run on Cisco equipment, the company has incorporated cybersecurity in the training of professionals in its Cisco Networking Academy.

This allows them to get security solutions not just at endpoints, but also at gateways and the cloud, Ilagan said.

Like Cisco, the Philippines is also in a unique position as it has the second highest number of people trained under the Cisco Networking Academy umbrella, Ilagan said.

"We have a partnership with DICT where we actually help deliver some of the courses on cyber operations through our Cisco Networking Academy."

The partnership also gives the DICT access to the company's threat intelligence platform Cisco Talos Intelligence Group.

"When we see those threats, we share those vulnerabilities, information about it, to not just our customers who use our solutions, but also to governments, the Philippine government through the Department of ICT."