Information Security

By: Joemar Matulac

It’s been more than a week after our midterm election. National result is already 98.42 percent of election returns transmitted with a total of 86,463 out of 87,852 clustered precincts. It seems like the top 12 senatorial candidates in this 98.32 percent will make it to the finish line. And there are a lot of questions raised about our electronic vote counting machine. Don’t get me wrong, I am into computer technology, not a lawyer. And how is information security related to midterm election? Let’s go back to August 11, 2018 when an 11 year old hacked the replicated Florida voting site during DEFCON (Defense Readiness Condition) conference. This is no joke. DEFCON is the world’s largest hacker conference held annually, this is where hackers and cyber security experts try to break into all kinds of computer security systems. Just search for this 11 years old Emmett Brewer to go further.

“Information is the new Power resource”, the more information you have, the richer you become. But it doesn’t stop there, being a technocrat is not enough. You need to secure your collected information too. Most especially in businesses. Businesses cannot afford their confidential data like trade secrets to be compromised. Remember Facebook and Cambridge Analytica? How about the March 27, 2016 event where Anonymous Philippines hacked into the website of COMELEC and defaced it? Due to data breach, 55 Million registered voters information were at risk during that time. Let’s leave this Halalan 2019 and move on. Those are just illustration and instances where security was breached.

 

The latest was the behemoth search engine pulled the Android operating system’s license from the biggest Chinese mobile phone manufacturer. This forces this manufacturer to use open source Android OS. Why? It’s because the US government fears that this manufacturer’s equipment could be used to spy on American network infrastructure. Let’s just check its latest development. Maybe there are some remedies on this sort of trade war issue.

 

Again it has something to do with security. Or let me say that there is no such thing as secure. There are always possibilities that a breach will happen. Even financial institutions are not exempted. Bangladesh’s Central Bank system was also breached. It was forced to send fraudulent orders to The New Your branch of the US central bank and was tricked to release the fund. Part of the released fund, 81M USD was sent to bank accounts here in Manila, Philippines and then was used in casino. End of story.

 

In our local setting, specifically here in Western Visayas, businesses are booming. Information is everywhere. But let’s not forget that automation is the way to go to for a business to be more efficient. If we invest in software, let’s start it right. The system that works is not enough, it should also be secure.

 

Yes, “there is no such thing as secure”, but “better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.” – Franz Kafka

 

Joemar Matulac is an experienced IT technical consultant and system developer with 10+ years of experience in managing technical teams and developing/designing/architecting web 2.0 and mobile-enterprise solutions in various platforms for a broad range of industries. He is currently working as Business Development Officer at Satellite GPS Asset Management and Tracking System, Inc. bridging the gap between business needs and technology.