MANILA, Sept. 23 (PNA) — President Benigno S. Aquino III has issued Executive Order No. 189, creating a National Cybersecurity Inter-Agency Committee that will assess the vulnerabilities of the country’s cybersecurity.
According to the executive order, the increasing number of cyber threats that put government and commercial information systems at great risk necessitates the creation of a body that will coordinate government agencies in preparing appropriate and effective measures to strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities.
The National Cybersecurity Inter-Agency Committee will issue updated security protocols to all government employees involved in the storage, handling and distribution of all forms — digital, electronic, snail mail, and others — of documents and communications.
It will also enhance the public-private partnership in the field of information sharing, involving cyber attacks, threats and vulnerabilities to cyber threats; and conduct periodic strategic planning and workshop activities that will reduce the country’s vulnerabilities to cyber threats.
The committee will also serve as the country’s coordinating arm in domestic, international and transnational efforts on cybersecurity.
The committee will be under the Office of the President and will be chaired by the Executive Secretary and co-chaired by the Director General of the National Security Council and the Secretary of Department of Science and Technology.
To serve as committee members will be the respective secretaries of the Departments of Energy, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Interior and Local Government, Justice, National Defense, Transportation and Communications, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, and Presidential Communications Operations Office, as well as the commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission, the chairman of the National Privacy Commission, and the executive director of the Anti-Terrorism Council–Program Management Center. (PNA)