If given the opportunity to serve and represent the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industry as a partylist group in the Congress, the Bangon Philippine Outsourcing, Inc. (BPO) Partylist pledged to formulate and enact appropriate laws against hacking, phishing and other types of cyber crime.
The BPO Partylist through its President and First Nominee Mike Cubos came up with this statement in the wake of the phishing scam that befell a group of teachers in their payroll accounts with the government-owned Land Bank of the Philippines.
According to reports by multiple Phl media outlets recently, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) claimed that some of its members lost money ranging from P26,000 to P121,000 from their Landbank accounts, which were then transferred to other banks as well as GCash accounts.
On Monday, January 24, Landbank issued an official statement, assuring that its systems remain “safe and secure,” but found out in its initial investigation that the devices of some teachers were hacked via phishing, which compromised their personal information.
To prevent such incident to happen in the future, Cubos has laid down some protective measures against phishing and hacking.
“There must be a uniform or standardized security protocols in the banking and financial industry and in the annual system audits by the government,” said Cubos.
For Cubos, is very vital to have an institutionalized national awareness drive on phishing attack prevention and protection.
“Make it mandatory for new accounts to undergo a quick anti-hacking/phishing lessons before a new account is opened,” Cubos furthered.
Cubos also assured of a better protection for customers against unscrupulous hackers.
“Many people are not techy but they still must be protected. Bank and financial companies must be mandated to have for example an insurance for such eventualities,” Cubos pointed out.
Moreover, Cubos will push for the creation of a separate but attached agency called Cyber Security Agency that independently look at computed-related crimes with its own budget and regulatory powers.
“We all have these in mind, and of course, put it into action as one of our legislative agenda once we will be successful in our historic bid to grab a seat in the Congress,” said Cubos, who is at the forefront of the BPO Partylist’s ground-breaking quest to represent call center workers, IT professionals, and online freelancers among others in the House of Representatives.
For the very first time since the partylist election was first contested in the country’s political arena back in 1998, the BPO family finally have a representation through the BPO Partylist (#120 in the official ballot) in the forthcoming May 2022 elections.
