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Thursday, January 15, 2004
RP urged to make software for computer security
By Cherry T. Lim
INSTEAD of enriching other countries by doing their software development work for them, Filipinos should make software for themselves, in particular computer security software, and become the best in the world in it.
This would enable the domestic software industry to grow, something it has been slow to do so far because of high piracy rates and ineffective Internet protocol protection.
“The Philippines can become a world-class center of expertise and even products in the security area,” said Lawrence Hughes, director of the Open Source and Computer Security Lab (OSCSL).
He said Japan, for instance, had concentrated on just one key area, IPv6.
During the opening of the lab last month at the Department of Science and Technology 7 compound, Hughes said the OSCSL would serve as a training facility and laboratory that will generate expertise to develop professionals to product marketable network security products.
The market and, therefore, the potential revenues for such products are huge.
More and more people are becoming dependent on the Internet for business and communication functions, making them vulnerable to hacker attacks, viruses and spam.
This has raised the need for computer security tools, proof of which is that computer security was “the only sector of IT that not only didn’t retrench in 2000-2002 but actually flourished,” Hughes said.
Outsourcing
In contrast, accepting outsourcing work from other countries “brings in little revenue” and only makes other countries richer.
Besides, there will always be someone else who will underbid local developers, like Indian software engineers, for example, he said during his presentation.
Cebu is marketing itself as an information technology hub in the country and Asia. It attracted a number of American call centers last year. It also does software engineering work for multinationals, like Japanese firms.
Most of the software export firms in Cebu are currently small affairs. Only a handful of firms employ more than 50 people for software export, said Frederick Kintanar, senior manager of NEC Telecom Software Philippines, the largest of these firms in the province.
(January 15, 2004 issue)
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