Cyber-literacy shortcomings hindering economy’s growth potential — analysts

CYBER-LITERACY skills deficiencies are holding back the economy’s potential because they delay the transition to the digital economy, analysts said.

Angel T. Redoble, chairman and founding president of the Philippine Institute of Cyber Security Professionals, said the lack of skills in the general population, as opposed to the highly trained teams responsible for cybersecurity functions, make the overall system vulnerable to cyberattack.

“No matter how expensive your cybersecurity implementations are, or how well-trained your cybersecurity team is, they don’t attack you directly — they’re going to attack ordinary users,” he said on the sidelines of the BusinessWorld Cybersecurity Insights Forum last week. 

A cyber-literate person is deemed capable of protecting personal data, practicing digital etiquette, and assessing information online, analysts said.

A 2025 report by Cisco Systems, Inc. found that only 6% of organizations in the Philippines have “mature” cybersecurity systems that can handle cyberthreats.

Samuel V. Jacoba, founding president of the National Association of Data Protection Officers, said the growing demand for CISO (chief information security officer)-as-a-service is an opportunity for the digital economy.

“To be competitive in the global economy, we’ll keep on producing world-class cyber professionals in all fields,” he said on the sidelines of the event.

The Philippines ranked 27^th in cybersecurity literacy skills, according to a 2023 report cybersecurity company and VPN service provider NordVPN.

“Cyber-literacy is definitely at the core of our aspiration to be a digital economy,” Angelito M. Villanueva, FinTech Alliance.PH chairman and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. executive vice-president and chief innovation and inclusion officer, said on the sidelines of the event.

He cited the need to invest in improving basic reading and writing skills to help make them more cyber-literate.

The digital economy’s contribution to the Philippine economy was 8.5% in 2024, against 8.6% a year earlier, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz