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PH hospitals strengthen cybersecurity during COVID-19

Amid the ongoing global pandemic, Philippine hospitals engaged in COVID-19 response now also face cybersecurity threats with cyber criminals exploiting the pandemic to contrive their cyberattacks and take advantage of vulnerable systems during this time. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) recently raised alerts on cybersecurity threats, specific to targeting hospitals. In a COVID-19 Czech Republic hospital which is a testing center for COVID 19, for instance, a cyberattack forced the facility to shut down their systems, causing delayed surgeries and forcing them to move some patients to other hospitals. To prevent disruption in local hospitals, the Cybersecurity Bureau of the DICT then urged hospitals and healthcare facilities nationwide to employ emergency backup systems for operational continuity for both databases and infrastructure in case of outages caused by malware or cyberattacks. PLDT Enterprise, through its ICT arm ePLDT Inc., has announced

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UBX partners with Lazada to aid online businesses amid COVID-19

Most businesses today are battling the waves to stay alive and their only sensible solution is to take out a loan. Even e-commerce is not saved from this catastrophe.  Seeing how these businesses are struggling to survive on limited resources, Lazada and Union Bank of the Philippines’ fintech subsidiary UBX, through its lending marketplace, SeekCap, have partnered together to help more MSMEs get access to financing. To date, over 6,000 MSMEs have signed up, with a 300% increase in loans application posted during the first quarter. Online lending marketplaces, like SeekCap, have become game-changers for most micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Gone are the days when they had no choice but to undergo manual loan processes and spend ample time collating the required paperwork. SeekCap took the opportunity to lift that burden off their shoulders by narrowing down the loan application process to the simplest and most convenient way possible.  Through SeekCap, applying for a loa

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Microsoft, Developers Connect PH create technology solutions to combat COVID-19

Together with the Department of Science and Technology and Microsoft Philippines, IT developers, entrepreneurs, students, and enthusiasts from Developers Connect Philippines (DEVCON) collaborated to develop digital solutions to address the COVID-19 situation in the country. Among the platforms developed were RapidPassPH and TraceCovid.ph, applications that help the government identify authorized vehicles and personnel and give access to map-verified COVID-19 cases, respectively. On March 16, 2020, DevCon Philippines, one of the biggest tech developer organizations in the Philippines, called for volunteers to catalyze the creation of technology solutions and platform to support efforts against COVID-19. The first webinar held on the same day was attended by almost 200 volunteers from different parts of the Philippines. From this, the DevCon Community of Technology eXperts (DCTx) was formed and almost 1,200 people signed up to volunteer and roughly 600+ participated in the succeeding de

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Delivering Better Public Service with Epson Scanners

Collecting and maintaining a large amount of information is a challenging task for any local government unit (LGU) as they process, manage, and file hundreds of documents every day. Since most LGUs still operate using systems that employ paper-based filing methods, retrieving files tends to be a time-consuming task of looking through cabinets and piles of papers. To streamline this process, some government offices are now using modern document storage systems that involve digital scanning and archiving. For the LGU of the Municipality of Buhi, digitizing their documents changes the way they provide public service to their constituents. Improving public service through tech Found at the heart of Camarines Sur in the Bicol Region, the Municipality of Buhi used to be a small refugee settlement during the eruption of Mayon Volcano in the 1500s. Now, Buhi serves as home to more than 77,000 locals called Buhinons, who founded a permanent settlement in the area. As the municipality contin

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As service technicians attend to subscribers' concerns SKY SETS FRIENDLY SAFETY PROCEDURES FOR SKY SERVICE TEAMS

As the country shifts to the new normal, SKY subscribers can continue to rely on a safe service when SKY technicians visit their homes.  Beginning this May, Sky technicians will be ready to assist subscribers with technical concerns that require in-home servicing by implementing safety procedures that benefit both its subscribers and frontline workers.  The SKY team will be wearing personal protective equipment, practice physical distancing, and decontaminate before and after their visits.  First, all service teams will be equipped with a complete personal protective equipment (PPE) gear which includes a face mask, disposable surgical gloves, and safety shoes plastic protection. All PPEs and tools also go through a disinfecting procedure based on approved standards. Second, subscribers can rest assured that SKY’s service technicians have washed their hands and stepped on a footbath basin to disinfect their shoe soles before and after fulfilling a job order. Third, a call-out will b

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COVID-19: Cloud Threat Landscape

Unit 42 researchers found 56,200+ of the NRDs are hosted in one of the top four popular cloud service providers (CSPs), such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Alibaba: Executive Summary Unit 42 researchers analyzed 1.2 million newly registered domain (NRD) names containing keywords related to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 9, 2020 to April 26, 2020 (7 weeks). 86,600+ domains are classified as “risky” or “malicious”, spread across various regions , as shown in Figure 1. The United States has the highest number of malicious domains (29,007), followed by Italy (2,877), Germany (2,564), and Russia (2,456). While the researchers were only able to identify two risky domains in the Philippines: covid19qpass.hopto.org and fcovid.ph.  â— 70.1% in AWS  â— 24.6% in GCP  â— 5.3% in Azure  â— <.1% in Alibaba During our research, we noticed that some malicious domains resolve to multiple IP addresses, and some IP addresses are associated wit

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Fujitsu Philippines marks 45th year of Shaping Tomorrow

Fujitsu Philippines Inc. (FPI), one of the country’s leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) system integrators, marks another milestone as it recently celebrated its 45th anniversary. In its 45th year, Fujitsu Philippines expressed its commitment to strengthening its presence in the country through its offerings, spanning from devices to ICT solutions and services. Raul “Cricket” Santiago, CEO and President of FPI, shares that their partners and customers, as well as other organizations, can only expect greater things from Fujitsu as it stays true to its promise of “Shaping Tomorrow with You.” “In the next couple of months, we anticipate the rise of “new normal” brought about by the current pandemic situation. As we celebrate another milestone, Fujitsu aims to continue helping businesses in the Philippines as they take on these new challenges,” said Santiago. Fujitsu first entered the Philippine market when in 1963. A four-man team of Fujitsu engineers came here to

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Helping Journalists to Get the Most out of Twitter #ThankAJournalist to show appreciation for journalism and storytelling

World Press Freedom Day is an important day for Twitter, as journalists and newsrooms are part of the fabric that makes Twitter great. Journalists help make Twitter the platform where you’ll find what’s happening, and we want to recognize the importance of this partnership in Asia Pacific and across the world. Recently due to COVID-19, newsrooms and journalists are often working around the clock, and may be endangering their own health to provide credible news and information. Media and Information Literacy We have been working together with UNESCO since mid-2018 to advance the conversation around Media and Information Literacy (MIL). In addition to past efforts around Global Media & Information Literacy Week, and MIL Cities, we have developed a resource, the “Teaching & Learning with Twitter” guide, to provide insight into how Twitter can be used by educators and social actors of all kinds to innovate for better MIL learning outcomes. Download the guide here. Visit @MILCLICKS for mo

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How Epson Inkjet’s Heat-Free Technology can help Businesses and the Environment

Printing is possibly one of society’s most important technological breakthroughs. The printing press, one of the earliest printing devices developed in China and later in Europe in the 1500s, revolutionized society as it allowed the mass production of books, pamphlets, and newspapers. Since then, printers have become smaller and more functional, especially with the rise of new technologies enabling printers to do more than just printing. Today’s printing devices have come a long way from dot-matrix printers, which use a printhead with metal needles to strike against an ink ribbon to print words onto paper. The introduction of tiny guns firing dots of ink directly on paper made modern-day printing more precise and able to translate more complex images on screen to print. Major printing technology shift  Among the standard printers nowadays are the inkjets, commonly used at home because of their lower print volume yet cost-efficient features. There are also laser printers, which use p

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Taiwan creates pandemic prevention product ecosystem

An ecosystem of pandemic prevention products and related industries has already been formed in Taiwan, aimed at offering assistance in the fight against the raging COVID-19 outbreak, the country’s trade representatives said Monday. Taiwan has already shown the world its resilience, integration capacity and advanced medical practices. Walter Yeh, President and CEO of TAITRA, said at a recent online product launch that Taiwan has already established a well-organized deployment and pandemic prevention product ecosystem that will definitely broaden the horizon and scope of the supply chain for Taiwan's medical industry. The one-hour launch was part of a series of events held by TAITRA to highlight the country’s strengths and to boost economic activities amid the global standstill, according to the trade promotion body. Webinars jointly organized with the National Cheng Kung University Hospital attracted 14,000 Indian medical staff. A virtual healthcare pavilion, which consists of 42 med

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