If you can’t hack them, join them.
That may as well be the battle cry of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, which is teaming up with Filipino hackers to stem the tide of hack attacks or data breaches on government and private sector websites.
DICT Secretary Henry Aguda on Thursday presented several proposals on how the DICT and hackers can collaborate to stop cybercrimes, sweetening his offer with a reward system for hacker-allies, which he called the “immune system” of the Internet.
Aguda made his proposals during the Rootcon Conference on September 25, 2025, in Clark, Pampanga.
DICT and hackers, he said, can collaborate through five ways:
First, Safe Harbor for Ethical Hackers, where if vulnerabilities are correctly reported, they will not be considered criminals;
Second, Bug Bounties and Recognition, where the DICT will launch “bug bounty” programs for eGov and Free Wi-Fi, and will recognize and reward ethical hacking as an essential contribution to the country’s cyber defense.
Third, Transparency and Threat Sharing, where there will be fast and open breach notifications, and anonymized threat intelligence feeds will be shared;
Fourth, the hacking community will participate in Oplan Cyberdome – the country’s whole-of-country cybersecurity initiative;
Fifth, Skills for Cyber Jobs, where there will be scholarships, capture the flag competitions, and cyber ranges;
And sixth, Privacy and Rights, where the Data Privacy Act protects everyone, and there is no trade-off between security and freedom.
Aguda also announced the creation of the Philippine Cyber Security Private Sector Advisory Council, where the voice of the private sector and the hacker community will be institutionalized in the development of the country’s cyber defense, ensuring that their voices are heard in government decisions related to cybersecurity.
