interface (formerly SNV)’s Post

On January 15, I returned to the place, where my career started almost to the day 15 years ago: the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Philippines. While 15 years ago, I was taken in as intern, this year I was honored to be the German counterpart on a panel about the potential of German-Philippine Defense Cooperation in the cyber domain. An idea that was discussed between Germany and the Philippines in 2024 with a defense agreement to be signed soon. I explored that potential together with Francis C. Domingo and Director Christine June P. Cariño from the Office for Cyber and Information System Management, Department of National Defense. In addition to interface (formerly SNV), I also represented Political Economic Elemental Researchers and Strategists at this event. My key points were: 1. Germany and the Philippines can explore a joint talent pipeline due to the German and EU need for an increasing IT security worforce as well as the Philippines' hacker talent and experience on Oversea Filipino Worker (OFW) policy. 2. If the Philippines identifies architectural and policy requirements, Germany could share best practices and failures in its vast experience of shaping a cybersecurity architecture and policy ecosystem. 3. Germany and the Philippines could work towards intelligence exchange with a special focus on a shared adversary: Chinese threat actors and cyber campaigns. As this is an issue close to my heart, I really hope that there will be a fruitful, effective and operational cooperation between our two countries in the future. Maraming Salamat. #Cybersecurity #Philippines #China #Germany #Cyberdefense