CONGRESS should enlist the help of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) cybercrime experts when conducting inquiries into critical system disasters, such as the New Year’s Day navigation system crash at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) that caused a massive flight disruption.

House Minority Leader Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan made this suggestion on Sunday, citing the need “to leave no stone unturned” during investigations.

“If we want to be thorough in our investigation of unexpected critical system breakdowns, we have to call in a panel of specialists, including experts from the NBI’s cybercrime division, if only to rule out potential cyberattacks, sabotage, or other kinds of malicious activity,” Libanan said.

“In the future, for example, if the national power grid system unexpectedly crashes and triggers a massive blackout, we should also bring in NBI experts, among other resource persons, to help in the investigation,” Libanan said.

Libanan, meanwhile, urged the NBI “to build up its staff proficiency and operational readiness” to launch its own investigations into critical system breakdowns.

“This way, Congress does not have to investigate every critical system crash,” Libanan said.

The NBI should brace aggressively for the future, considering that cyberattacks clearly pose a growing threat, according to Libanan.

Libanan’s remarks came ahead of the House committee on transportation’s January 10 inquiry into the sudden failure of NAIA’s air traffic system that caused at least 282 flights to be cancelled, diverted, or delayed, and displaced over 56,000 passengers.

The incident set off further flight disorders in the succeeding days as airlines scrambled to launch recovery flights for affected passengers.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) had initially attributed the failure of NAIA’s Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) to a busted uninterruptible power supply (UPS) equipment.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco