At a glance.
- Cybersecurity challenges in the Philippines.
- The dangers of data scraping.
Cybersecurity challenges in the Philippines.
The Philippine Ambassador to the United States recently met with the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to discuss threats to the country’s national security. While joint patrol operations with the US in the territorial waters of the West Philippine Sea were a major focus, GMA News Online explains that cybersecurity was also at the top of the agenda. Ambassador Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez stated, "Many of our communication systems, our emails, and our telephones, and all kinds of communications are now severely compromised. That is the real issue there.” Romualdez said Marcos has enlisted the help of cybersecurity experts to improve the state of the nation’s digital protections.
The dangers of data scraping.
An international group of privacy regulators issued a joint statement yesterday warning social media companies about the threat of data scraping. “Personal information that is publicly accessible is still subject to data protection and privacy laws in most jurisdictions,” the agencies stated. The signatories include the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office as well as data protection authorities from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, the island of Jersey, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland. As the Record explains, unlawfully scraped data has landed on hacking forums, and in the wrong hands could be used in social engineering or phishing attacks. The statement went on to urge social media platforms to employ “multi-layered technical and procedural controls,” to prevent third-party scrapers from scraping user data for “for reasons they don’t expect,” which could include cyberattacks or identity theft. The agencies’ recommendations for preventing scraping include “rate limiting” the number of visits per hour or day by one account, monitoring how quickly and aggressively a new account starts searching for other users, identifying suspicious behavior patterns in bots, and ensuring users can “make informed decisions about how they use the platform and what personal information they share.”