FIRST SAY:
“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.”
― Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
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For all the hype about the Internet, online, and swift information dissemination thru cyberspace, the fact is 65 percent of the Philippine population is still not connected to the internet. This is according to the latest data from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
“In its current phase in the digital age, 77.81 percent of the Filipino population is expected to only have internet access by 2028,” said the Statista Research Department.
The Philippines is currently 41st in the world in terms of average broadband internet speed, which is reportedly still a major concern as it is often unreliable and is only limited, the Telecom Review reported.
The Commission on Human Rights has said that access to the internet is a basic human right in the digital era. Although this might be too much of a stretch, no one can deny that at the present time, the Internet has become a necessity in school, the workplace, and at home.
Meanwhile, an international think tank known for its controversial pronouncements about the South China Sea is urging the government to revise an old law and help improve the reach of internet connections across the country.
In a statement, the Stratbase ADR Institute said that the National Building Code of the Philippines, which was passed in 1977, is in need of a review to help achieve digital transformation in the country.
The institute argued that the internet was still "an eight-year-old novelty" during the building code’s enactment and considered only power and water utilities as essential to commercial and residential properties.
According to Stratbase, NBC's amendment should encompass both the commercial and public sectors, as well as give internet service providers with ample area to construct fiber optic cables and equipment to enable Filipinos gain access to the internet faster.
"Broadband internet connectivity has emerged as one of the most basic needs in today's world. It only follows that property development, both in the public and private sectors, should provide the internet service providers access to adequate space to install the necessary fiber optic cables and equipment that would deliver services to tenants and occupants," said Stratbase ADR Institute head Victor Andres Manhit.
"This will free up resources that can be spent on the improvement and expansion of broadband services. This will also send a clear message that the government is determined to transform the country into a globally competitive digital economy," he added.
A bill at the House of Representatives seeking to amend the National Building Code by incorporating items that concern information and communication technology (ICT) has already been approved.
An end to spoofing
Leaders of the telecommunication industry are working with the government to stop the importation of spoofing devices.
This practice of spoofing simply means the sending out of scam messages to the public, or to cellphone subscribers in a particular area.
In a statement, Froilan Castelo, Globe general counsel, said fraudsters send malicious texts to subscriber identity modules (SIM) in a particular area in the guise of legitimate sender IDs using devices called the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catcher.
These portable devices are imported either in full or in parts for assembly, then used for illegal activities.
IMSI catchers can be carried around on foot or inside vehicles to target SIMs in a certain area and force signals to downgrade to 2G, the old cellular network technology for voice calls and texts.
Fraudsters are able to send malicious texts to phones connected to their fake cell tower, appearing to be legitimate. Those who commit this fraud impersonate legitimate sender IDs, making it difficult for mobile users to detect they are being duped.
“We are working with the government to prevent the importation and use of IMSI catchers, which are the primary tools enabling these security breaches. We need more robust enforcement of the law concerning spoofing and the proliferation of this illegal equipment,” Castelo said.
It is well to note that short messaging system (SMS) spoofing has been defined as a criminal act under the Cybercrime Prevention Law, with criminal sanctions. Industry leaders are actively coordinating with police and NBI and other law enforcement offices to arrest the spoofers.
Globe has tightened the noose on scam and spam SMS through stricter blocking, including filtering out all person-to-person SMS with links and enforcing stringent regulations on app-to-person SMS with URLs. The telco has also stopped using clickable links in its official customer advisories to help mobile users more easily distinguish between legitimate and spoofed SMS.
Government agencies that handle information technology and the private sector should really cooperate to stop all scams online.
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