By Espie Angelica A. de Leon
The Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of National Defense (DND), and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are now mining Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled technologies and mechanisms to upgrade their capabilities in preventing and solving cybercrimes.
At the Public Services Session of the Asia IoT Business Platform?s Manila leg held on April 27 at the Manila Marriott Hotel, representatives from crime-fighting agencies discussed their experiences, activities, and plans with regard to cyber threats.
?If the IoT can make a coffee maker know that his boss is arriving within minutes so it will start to heat his coffee at the exact temperature that the boss wants it, I don?t see why IoT can?t help us in our public safety effort,? said June Paolo O. Abrazado, chief of the cyber terrorism response section of PNP?s anti cybercrime group.
?There are already platforms out there where they can implement a connected officer in real time. Even [at] the moment the police officer draws in the gun, it will be monitored.?
At the command center, authorities can see such incident as it happens and immediately do something about it so save the policeman, Abrazado explained.
With technologies already deployed in most cities of the country, Abrazado said that he hopes to merge all these innovations soon and migrate them into the IoT platforms to enable the PNP to monitor crimes in real time and solve these cases faster.
He also sees greater cooperation between cybersecurity professionals and the PNP so the former can help them upgrade their facilities, equipment, and capacities for cybercrime prevention and solution.
The DND, on the other hand, has set up a network center which connects the Philippine Navy, Air Force and the Army and has started using drones in its operations. In addition, the department is also developing a smart barracks and a mobile app through which the public may report cybercrimes, among others.
?The best benefit of IoT is more on decision making. This is much better than human intelligence,? said Jesus V. Lomeda, chief of DND?s management information system service. IoT-generated data such as location, temperature, weather, time, and visibility are very important to ground commanders, he added.
Meanwhile, NBI?s senior agent for cybercrime Aristotle M. de Leon agreed that criminals have now penetrated the digital space. ?The bulk of our complaints comes from users of FB accounts,? he revealed.
De Leon hopes to see the day when the agency starts using facial recognition technologies for crime prevention and solution.
According to Abrazado, using IoT is like putting human sensors on all of these devices. ?Having those sensors in those devices, like human beings, they can be witnesses to crimes in real time,? he said.
The Public Services discussion was one of several sessions held during the Asia IoT Business Platform Manila leg from April 26-27, 2018. The event focused on IoT communications, applications, and solutions for key verticals in Malaysia, Mainland China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar.
