Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Is the Philippine Government Digitally (In)Secure?

Recently, several Philippine government websites have been defaced. Outraged, the heads of the victimized agencies vowed to go after the perpetrators. Now that sounds awfully familiar - didn'th the former heads also make such similar threats?

All the government ever do is threaten the perpetrators concerned, including the agency supposedly in-charge (the NBI Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division). However, nobody ever gets caught and punished. It begs now the question as to how efficient are the people in that agency. Who exactly are the ones on the job? What are their qualifications? How do they do what they're supposed to do?

The problem is not just about government websites being hacked. This also raises questions as to the competence of the government in providing security measures for ICT related information - particularly the sensitive and crucial ones. With the controversies surrounding the last automized elections and the NBN ZTE deal, the people now have the reason to be afraid (to be very afraid) of the competence of the government when it comes to information, communication and techonology.

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