Dito-AFP deal defended
Credit to Author: LISBET K. ESMAEL| Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:42:32 +0000
Third telco player Dito Telecommunity defended its deal with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) after the Palace questioned the agreement allowing the former to build facilities in military camps.
Adel Tamano, Dito Telecommunity chief administrative officer, said the new carrier would comply with the government’s requirement to stop suspicions on potential security risks.
He said the firm, backed by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy and China Telecommunications, was aware that the deal still needs to secure the approval of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
“It is important for the public to know that this agreement is similar to agreements that the AFP has signed with Globe and Smart,” he told The Manila Times.
Globe has Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), while PLDT is supported by Japan’s NTT Group.
“We want to assure the public that Dito has a cybersecurity plan, as approved by NTC (National Telecommunications Commission), and that the company will always protect the national and cybersecurity interests of the Philippines. This cybersecurity plan is a requirement for the third telco and we are unaware if it has been required of the two other major players,” Tamano added.
Experts earlier allayed fears on possible security issues concerning the Dito-AFP dea which was signed last week.
Allan Cabanlong, founder and chief operating officer of CyberGuardians Inc., was confident about the government’s capacity to oversee if the network infrastructures built were being used for espionage.
“For sure, the telco infrastructure would undergo a number of controlled measures,” Cabanlong, who previously served as the assistant secretary for cybersecurity and enabling technologies at the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), said.
Dominic Ligot, founding board member of the Analytics Association of the Philippines, mirrored the same statement, saying “Dito is China-backed is in the same vein as Globe/Smart also having foreign investors.”
“However anything China-related is sensitive to the public, so AFP should reassure the public that their network is protected from intrusion,” he said.
“Any civilian network infrastructure in a military base is a natural vulnerability, let’s take that as a given. We trust AFP to take the appropriate safeguards (e.g. encryption, traffic monitoring, hardening) with regards to civilian networks (not just Dito, but also Globe and Smart and we would expect AFP communications to be designed with security in mind,” Ligot said.