IT teachers in Visayas undergo cybersecurity training

Marchel P. Espina

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IT teachers in Visayas undergo cybersecurity training
The IT teachers will form a pool of trainers who will help students become less vulnerable to cyber attacks

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – As part of the region’s efforts to protect students from cyber attacks, a first batch of 60 Information Technology (IT) teachers from the Visayas received training on cybersecurity awareness.

The teachers also took a Certified Secure Computer User certification examination during the two-day training program which started on Friday, June 30.

Joeven Tansi, executive director of Iloilo Federation for Information Technology, said that the teachers were trained on how to secure computer systems from cyber attacks by utilizing protection applications.

“It’s imperative to equip the teachers with knowledge so they can help their students, who are the most vulnerable targets online, secure their virtual activities,” he said.

Tansi said that most of the teachers and the students are unaware they are vulnerable to cyberthreats.

Kevin Wu of Wissen International Singapore, which represents EC-Council, was one of the speakers at the training program. He discussed how to protect users from viruses, malware, and spyware, and how to secur social media accounts and mobile usage.

“Be careful about fake emails that ask to change passwords. Don’t click, as that’s where the danger comes in. Never click and never change password from that site as they could access your bank cards and they can do whatever they want. Don’t open emails from strangers,” Wu said.

“We’re here to create security awareness to people when they access internet through their mobile phones and laptops,” he added.

Alfian Pamungkas Sakawiguna, EC-Council consultant on cybersecurity, said that one should have strong passwords on their virtual accounts and should keep their online information private.

To combat email phishing and other cyber attacks, the Indonesian urged internet users to install anti-virus and firewall, and use genuine computer software.

TRAINING. Sixty teachers from the Visayas undergo two-day training on cybersecurity at Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)-Negros Occidental office in Bacolod City. Photo by Marchel P. Espina

Cyber ready region

Lawyer Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, executive director of Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology, said they are looking to equip students with the capability to protect themselves from attacks online like phishing, hacking, and malware.

“To achieve this, we have to create a pool of trainers. And these trainers will then train their students,” she said.

Sigue said the whole Visayas is gearing up to become a cyber-ready region.

Visayas is composed of the islands of Negros, Panay, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Samar.

“In any industry, technology disrupts the way we think. We have to reinvent our workplace, our school, our organization because of technology. We are faced with drastic changes that must adapt with these technologies,” Sigue stressed.

Among the key technology issues she pointed out are artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity.

“We live in a virtual world. A lot of us are exposed to online transactions. We have emails, social media accounts and smartphones to connect to the internet, (which begs the question) if how safe and secure are we online,” she said.

“We need to be globally integrated,” Sigue added.

Meanwhile, ICT councils are also looking to train K to 12 teachers and the media on cybersecurity in their next sessions. – Rappler.com

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