MANILA - Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro Philippines said it has partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help raise the skills of Filipinos in cybersecurity.

Trend Micro said it will work with USAID's BEACON or Better Access and Connectivity (BEACON) Project "to produce more avenues and opportunities to upskill Filipino citizens and professionals and close the cybersecurity skills gap."

"With BEACON by our side, we are confident that we will be able to reach even more Filipinos, and further improve and strengthen the Philippines’ cybersecurity resilience,” said Max Cheng, Trend Micro’s Chief Information Officer.

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The company said it will hold a boot camp with USAID's BEACON on advanced persistent threats and malware analysis next year.

"The boot camp will serve as another initiative focused on capability building, beyond Trend’s previous partnerships with local universities and both local and international law enforcement agencies over the past year," Trend Micro said.

A USAID study earlier showed that the Philippines has far fewer cybersecurity professionals than its competitors, despite being the second biggest player in the global IT-BPO industry.

BEACON also warned that the Philippines is "poised to jeopardize" the US portion of its BPO market if it doesn't improve its cybersecurity.

US BPO contracts make up 75 percent of the $23-billion Philippine BPO market.

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