PLDT, Smart train future cybersecurity professionals

Meet the next generation of cybersecurity professionals who will help in the fight against cyber threats and cybercrime.

PLDT and Smart’s Cybersecurity Operations Group (CSOG) trained graduating Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Information Technology students from Asia Pacific College (APC) on cybersecurity under a six-month internship program called the Cyber Warrior Course (CWC).

“Cybersecurity is an advocacy. You need discipline to survive the industry,” said Angel Redoble, FVP and Chief Information Security Officer at PLDT and Smart. “I’ve had 27 years of experience but I am still learning. You have to constantly push yourself to be better because the enemy is getting more sophisticated.”

Out of the 40 students who passed the interviews conducted by CSOG, 19 of them chose the CWC and were onboarded into the program. Guided by CSOG trainers and subject matter experts, the interns, also called cadets, were immersed into the group’s daily operations: analyzing real-world situations and using scientific and empirical approaches to solve cybersecurity challenges.

The interns were assigned to the different CSOG subgroups called ‘pillars’ to learn their specific functions and how they contribute to the PLDT Group’s overall efforts in defending the companies’ data, networks, systems and infrastructure, and protecting customers against cyber attacks.

Developing cybersecurity warriors is part of PLDT and Smart CSOG’s active drive to fortify and ensure the resiliency and sustainability of their cybersecurity systems, which is fundamental to the PLDT group’s much broader program  to elevate the quality of customer experience by protecting them from cyberthreats.