The 2025 Cyber Resilience Summit: Delivering Competitive Advantage Through Security, held March 5-6 at the Crowne Plaza Manila, is the first of its kind in the Philippines. The event featured top-level experts from the Philippines and the SEA region representing government, finance and technology, banking and healthcare, BPM, advocacies and education, and the Armed Forces.
In a nutshell, the Cyber Resilience Summit homed in on the real-world dangers of cyber (in)security and threats. Throughout the two-day event, discourse and discussion from its top-notch resource speakers revolved on cyber-attacks and scams, online fraud, fake news, identity phishing.
Cited by the World Economic Forum as the #4 security risk globally, the Cyber Resilience Summit asked decision makers to prioritize cyber security at every level of enterprise and industry.
More importantly, the event focused on awareness and security, and how information and awareness, supplemented massively by tough security measures, are requisite and paramount to ensure public safety.
Not only in the Philippines, but across regional and global lines, and at the same velocity and speed as technology itself, entities manipulate these advancements for criminal acts.
The World Economic Forum, among other experts, states no absolute-100% security from cyber threats as these grow in intensity and at scale. Cyber resilience is imperative to protect data and maintain privacy, and to equip industries to recover from cyber attacks. At the summit, experts unanimously addressed measures that bring together human factors, organizational processes, and the latest technologies.
2025 Cyber Resilience Summit: Delivering Competitive Advantage Through Security featured, among others, the following talking heads expressing global perspectives.
Engr. Jose Carlos P Reyes, Director of the Cybersecurity Bureau, Department of Information and Communications Technology—Securing the Digital Battlefield: Building a Resilient Digital Ecosystem
“Cybersecurity is not a solitary pursuit. We must foster collaboration across organizations, industries, and even nations; like-minded nations that is sharing threat intelligence and best practices enable us to stay ahead of attackers and improve our collective defenses. Resilience comes from being proactive. It’s about identifying potential risks early, understanding the impact of those risks, and implementing controls to mitigate them before they turn into actual reaches in this rapidly evolving threat landscape; static defense mechanisms are insufficient.”
Ts Mohd Zabri Adil Bin Talib, Head of Responsive Technology & Services, CyberSecurity Malaysia – E-Sovereignty and Cyber Resilience: Safeguarding Nations in the Digital Era
“Cybersecurity is basically an initiative, a layer of parameters to set up to prevent you from being harmed digitally. Cyber resilience is when your cyber security is solid and tested. Cyber resilience brings cyber trust—digital trust. Malaysia is focusing on driving digital trust because when we have trust in the infrastructure, the public will use and participate with the digital economy as a whole country to push the national economy to the next level.”
Mr. Jocel de Guzman, Founder and Co-Lead Convenor, ScamWatchPH and Founder & President, Truth360 Inc – Cyber Resilience Starts Here: Building a Robust Human Firewall
“The problem globally is legislation in terms of how to catch up when it comes to the advancement of technology. There are some advancements in the lawmaking, but there’s still a lack. The weakest link in cybersecurity is the end-user. The Filipino digital user learned the technology on their own. While most top 500 corporations have cybersecurity infrastructure in place to protect their assets, the end-user is often neglected (in lawmaking discussions). Government agencies work in silos. Existing legislation has flaws; for example, the SIM card registration allows 1 individual the ability to register 1000 SIM cards. Quoting former DICT Secretary Ivan Uy, “Online scams are now bigger than the illegal drug trade globally.”
Onil Jaia G. Leyda, Technical Solutions Consultant, ManageEngine – Future-Proofing Cybersecurity: Harnessing Emerging Tech for Resilience in 2025 and Beyond
“(Among many) AI attacks we should watch out for in 2025 include advanced AI-powered attacks; these are the AI-generated phishing, social engineering, and deepfake scams that target CEOs and focus camps. Next, polymorphic and autonomous cyberattacks that mutate their code for the malware not to detect them and adapt to the security defenses of the users. Then we also have the weaponized AI for cyber, that does large-scale attacks on government, banking, finance, and patients.”
The 2025 Cyber Resilience Summit: Delivering Competitive Advantage Through Security key takeaways are:
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Collaboration is Key
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Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility across organizations, industries, and nations.
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Threat intelligence sharing and best practices enhance collective defenses.
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Cyber Resilience & Digital Trust
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Cybersecurity acts as a protective layer, while cyber resilience ensures security systems are solid and tested.
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Digital trust is crucial for public confidence and economic growth in the digital era.
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Legislative Challenges & End-User Risks
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Technology outpaces legislation, leaving gaps in cybersecurity laws.
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The end-user is the weakest link due to lack of structured education and awareness.
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Example: SIM card registration flaws allow individuals to register 1,000 SIMs, enabling fraud.
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Emerging AI-Driven Cyber Threats (2025 and Beyond)
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AI-powered attacks: phishing, social engineering, and deepfake scams.
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Polymorphic malware: Mutates to bypass security defenses.
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Weaponized AI: Large-scale cyberattacks targeting governments, banking, and healthcare sectors.
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The call for sectors to be cyber secure and cyber resilient is pressing, and urgent. It takes a proactive and collaborative approach, combined with strong legislation, to be cyber resilient. Vigilance and agility in merging technology defenses are essential to safeguarding the digital landscape.
Words by Aye Ubaldo
Photo 📸 Noel Gideon
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