Converge raises awareness on evolving trends of cybercrime

With internet service providers playing a role in the ‘supply chain’ of cyber crime, leading Philippine fiber broadband and technology provider Converge ICT Solutions Inc. is taking up the cudgels against the perpetuation of illicit acts online and stressing the importance of ‘self-defense’, or rather, self-education to combat them.

This will be at the center of discussions in its upcoming Converge webinar on February 14,  entitled “Building Resilience Against Online Scams”, to be headlined by Converge Chief Executive Advisor Eugene Yeo, a tech and digital expert in his own right.

Yeo, who had been at the helm of several transformation projects of leading tech companies in his home country of Singapore, notes that cyber crime today is being perpetrated by artificial intelligence – showing the dark underside of this powerful force that’s changing the technology industry.

“These malicious agents are no longer people, but AI. On the part of Converge, we can keep blocking these illicit attempts to penetrate our network but a better way is to leverage this technology so that it becomes AI vs. AI. That’s what we’re doing in our own internal network,” said Yeo.

In 2024, Converge blocked a record 183 billion entry attempts to  683,000 URLs / domains it has registered in its system as illegal sites. This is 18 times the number of attempts for the years 2021-2023 which was only at 10-12 billion.

To help make the internet a safer place for its customers and end-users, Converge has been active in its campaign against OSAEC (Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children)  and other cyber threats, inking a partnership in 2022 with Stairway Foundation , a Philippine NGO promoting children’s rights through awareness, community assistance, and networking. It is also actively working with the Internet Watch Foundation, an organization that provides Converge with a comprehensive database of URLs of OSAEC content so these can be blocked from the network.

This echoed the statements of government agencies who took part in the Safer Internet Day 2025 celebration organized by the Department of Justice on February 11. The agencies registered their alarm at AI’s increasing role in the creation of images of sexual abuse of children.

“The law’s definition of Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation or CSAEM materials is very broad in our law, so whether that is AI-generated, a real person, or just a composite of a real person, we still consider that CSAEM, ” noted Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty Undersecretary-in-Charge, Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking under the Department of Justice.

Converge, together with the National Coordinating Council Against OSAEC and CSAEM  (NCC-OSAEC-CSAEM) celebrated Safer Internet Day 2025 on Tuesday, February 11 and sent a message of solidarity with the simultaneous change of social media assets. The focus of their campaign is child safety and protection online.

In its own webinar, Converge will also enlist the help of like-minded government agencies as it invited Undersecretary of the DICT and Executive Director of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center Alexander Ramos to talk about the changes that the DICT are proposing in the amendment of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law.

Converge Corporate Compliance and Data Protection Officer Atty. Laurice Esteban-Tuason will also speak in the webinar on how Converge employees, themselves handlers of customer data, protect the information of Converge customers.

“As part of our commitment to sustainability, we recognize that cybersecurity is integral to protecting our customers, our operations, and the broader digital ecosystem.A secure digital environment is a sustainable one, and we remain steadfast in our efforts to create a safer online space for all,” said Esteban-Tuason.

Significantly, Converge’s NGO partner, ScamWatch PH will further give emphasis to ‘self-defense’. The NGO co-Convenor Mr. Jocel De Guzman will talk about pro-active tips to avoid being scammed online.

In 2024, to emphasize the importance of education, especially the youth who are immersed in the digital world, Converge tied up with its neighboring primary school Francisco Legaspi Memorial School (FLMS) in an initiative called Project PIGLET in Pasig to engage its pupils on digital literacy and responsible online behavior.

Converge, as the leading fiber broadband and technology provider, takes as its mission to ‘create a safe digital space for all’ – it focused its awareness and information dissemination efforts on combating OSAEC in 2023, then added digitally-enabled “love scams” in 2024.

The public can log on to the official Facebook page of Converge on February 14, at 10:00 AM to view the webinar, which will be livestreamed.