Armed Forces of the Philippines will setup a Cyber War Room

Although the Supreme Court has decided to temporarily stop the implementation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, the military is scrambling to set up a cybersecurity operations center, according to military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr.

The military dubbed its envisioned cybersecurity war room as the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (C4ISTAR), Burgos said in a statement distributed to defense reporters.

"The C4ISTAR project was envisioned by the Department of National Defense and the (Armed Forces of the Philippines) for a comprehensive upgrading and acquisition of modern equipment and solutions under the AFP modernization program for efficient and effective conduct of operations," he said.

Burgos did not specify what kind of "operations" the military hoped to conduct but Col. Wilson Galedo of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Electronics and Information Systems, said the C4ISTAR is focused on protecting highly-secured data from cyberattacks.

"This is a continuing effort to keep the AFP at pace with current trends in cybersecurity in line with the C4ISTAR and the AFP Modernization Program," Galedo said, adding they will also monitor the "changing threat landscape and its implications for defense, security management and building cybersecurity core personnel."

The remarks attributed to AFP chief of staff  General Jessie Dellosa in the statement was equally vague.

"As part of its inherent roles on internal security operations, territorial defense, and disaster response, the AFP has to be prepared and ready as the world shifts its focus on cybersecurity," the statement read. "To do this we have to streamline and secure our communications systems in order to efficiently and effectively perform our mandate in protecting our people."-Rebuilding for the Better Philippines (November 19, 2012)