Malacañang advised all government agencies to fortify their websites and shield them from cyber crimes.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma, in a press briefing at Malacañang on Thursday, said the government will have to invest sufficient funds to avail itself of a more resilient and resistant software that will guarantee the security of government websites.

Coloma said the websites of the different government agencies are vital channels of communication, thus the need to strengthen and secure them.

“When one channel or one link is down, then the entire chain is weakened…we simply would like to see all the sites up so that the chain is complete… and we want the chain to be connected all the time,” Coloma said.

This communication chain is essential in line with the President’s advocacy of transparency since the various government agencies are contributing information to the President’s website.

Last week, the website of the Philippine Information Agency was reportedly hacked. However, the hacking, according to Coloma, was not sufficient to breach the firewall and it simply resulted to a temporary shutting down of the website.

“But even with that initial finding, we still believe that there is room for improving the security of our websites,” he said. (fpv/4:14 p.m.)