WITH incidents of hacking and phishing on the rise, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) yesterday called on information technology (IT) learning institutions to consider offering courses on cybersecurity.
In a statement, TESDA Director General Suharto Mangudadatu urged IT schools to help Filipinos hone their information and communications technology (ICT) skills, and have the opportunities to be hired as cybersecurity support staff, cybersecurity help desk staff, cyber threat analysts, and cyber defense analysts, among others.
“Cybersecurity threats and data breaches are on the rise, impacting businesses, governments, and individuals alike. Hence, Filipinos need to be capacitated through appropriate IT training to encourage their cyber resilience,” said Mangudadatu.
“Such programs will result in greater opportunities for Filipino workers and a strengthened workforce that can help secure our country against cyberattacks,” he added.
Last year, several government agencies fell victim to hacking, including the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, the Philippine Statistics Authority, and the House of Representatives.
Phishing activities also continue to victimize the general public via email and social media.
TESDA said it is rolling out its new Competency Standards (CS) for training programs on cybersecurity namely Cyber Threat Monitoring Level I and Cyber Threat Mitigation Level II.
It said the programs were developed with technical experts from Cyber Security Philippines – CERT, Bankers Institute of the Philippines, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Mandiant, Dansal Solutions, and AFP Cyber Command Group.
“We encourage the country’s schools and training centers to use these new cybersecurity standards as the bases for their training programs’ curriculum,” he said.
“They may also approach the nearest TESDA office in their areas for more information and to register their respective training programs,” added Mangudadatu.
