UP Fighting Maroons and 3M Philippines Seal Partnership Deal

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The University of the Philippines (UP) got a new major boost for their basketball program after UP inked a partnership deal with 3M Philippines, Inc.. 3M Philippines president and managing director Ariel Lacsamana, UP president Danilo Concepcion, and officials of the Nowhere To Go But UP Foundation (NTGBUP), a volunteer group of UP alumni that help the university’s varsity programs, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Tuesday, May 29, at Quezon Hall of the University of the Philippines Diliman. Also present at the MOU signing are UP head coach Bo Perasol, his coaching staff and the UP Fighting Maroons. 

UP’s partnership with 3M is one of the huge offseason moves that the Fighting Maroons has made in preparation for the upcoming UAAP season and the seasons to come.

Companies in Philippines Urged to Strengthen Cyber Security Readiness Ahead of European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

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Fortinet identifies key industries impacted by the EU’s GDPR compliance requirements, and recommends steps to prevent, detect, and remediate data breaches on Personally Identifiable Information

Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions today advised organizations in the Philippines to make final preparations to abide by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective 25 May 2018.

This law protects the personal information of all citizens of the European Union (EU) and will be enforced through fines, sanctions, and injured-party compensation. It is quite similar to an existing law in the Philippines, the Data Privacy Act of 2012, which subjects any business located in the country to stringent data protection laws that could cost offending organizations fines and jail time of up to six years.

As such, industries impacted by GDPR will need to review all business processes involving personally identifiable information (PII) and assess their organisational readiness to meet the 72-hour data breach reporting mandate.

The GDPR finely balances the rights of EU citizens to control their personal data against the responsibilities of organizations to protect that data both in the course of normal operations as well as in the case of data breaches. Significant new EU personal information protections include the right to explicitly approve personal data usage and a “right to be forgotten,” enabling people to demand that an organization purge any personal data about them. While businesses and governments with a physical presence in the EU will need to abide by GDPR, it may also apply to firms with significant EU customer or client bases.

Despite the impending deadline, most Asia Pacific businesses, which serve the EU market or have significant transactions that capture PII are still not fully prepared. According to the third biennial EY Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey by Ernst & Young (EY), only 12 per cent of firms in APAC have a GDPR compliance plan in place.

“While GDPR affects private and public sector organizations handling PII, certain key industries will have heightened exposure as a result of the volumes of PII data they handle as well as the nature of their business,” said Peerapong Jongvibool, Regional Director for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Fortinet. “These include e-commerce-based organizations operating internationally, as well as companies that serve significant numbers of tourists, visitors, or expatriates from the EU.”

Fortinet lists the top three industries impacted by GDPR:

• Retail − Retail businesses most likely to curate GDPR-relevant PII data include cross-border e-commerce operations, multi-venue retail chains, hospitality, travel, and F&B businesses. Brick-and-mortar businesses serving EU customers can also find themselves liable to GDPR PII protections. Paying with a credit or debit card, providing shipping address information and participating in a customer loyalty program all fall under the protection of GDPR.
  
• Healthcare − GDPR extends its coverage to non-EU organizations storing or processing the medical information of EU persons. GDPR enacts particularly stringent protection and processes for handling particular types of PII medical information. In general, an organization may collect and process personal medical information only if it is necessary for patient treatment and diagnosis, and with the explicit consent of the patient. GDPR also mentions genetic data as an area of particular concern.
  
• Financial Services - Financial organizations often maintain huge stockpiles of PII data on account holders. They also consume and generate vast quantities of highly personal marketing data to support selling financial services and assessing credit worthiness of commercial and individual customers.

Organizations preparing for GDPR must focus on reconfiguring their business processes and IT architectures, as well as reducing exposure of PII data.

Fortinet advises enterprises in the Philippines to take the following steps to accelerate GDPR compliance:

1. Engage a third-party firm to assess data protection practices and exposure to GDPR rules.
2. Conduct a comprehensive data audit to understand data source, collection and processing. It should include documenting where GDPR-impacted data is stored, how it is communicated between systems within the domain, and any external clouds or third-party data custodians.
3. Determine how long it takes for data-breach detection and mitigation and what is required to improve these processes to meet GDPR requirements. This element of the action plan should also include a detailed security assessment.

“At the end of the day, complying with GDPR may well turn out to be the right thing to do to protect the privacy and interests of all stakeholder communities linked to an organization,” concluded Jongvibool. “As onerous as GDPR might seem, it could mark a big step towards restoring public confidence in the ability of businesses to deliver social benefits while simultaneously curbing social risks.”

Honda Philippines Celebrates HSDC’s 10th Anniversary and Thanksgiving Day

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Leading motorcycle brand strengthens its take on road safety programs

Honda Safety Driving Center (HSDC), the first motorcycle riding school in the country that provides comprehensive training for both 2-Wheel and 4-Wheel vehicles and even truck certification, celebrates its10th anniversary and thanksgiving day along with the Honda group of companies namely Honda Philippines, Inc. (HPI,) Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI,) and Honda Manufacturing Parts Corporation (HPMC.)

HSDC offers programs in road safety training which aims to help safeguard the well-being of motorcycle riders and automobile drivers.

The institution also conducts training courses for Beginners and Refreshers, as well as Seminars that provide the rules of the road and demonstrate proper and legal safety maneuvers for motorcycle riding. These programs are ideal for those who want to learn safety techniques, relearn driving, and awareness as a Safe Road User.

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, HSDC updates the public about the projects they have done so far after the launch of the One Honda Road Safety (1HRS) for our Family Campaign, a joint advocacy of the Honda group of companies. This was awarded as one of the best road safety programs by the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists. This is HSDC’s milestone and long-term commitment to building a community of safe and responsible road users.

HSDC also launches its newest services, such as the Basic Group Riding Course, the Big Bike Safety Riding Course, the Executive Driving Course, and Kids on Safety Program.

The celebration also coincides with the thanksgiving and awarding of the Certificate of Appreciation to all of its road safety program partners. Since it is important to HSDC that its riders make it home safely, it awards its partners to recognize their efforts in helping make this goal into a reality.

HSDC sets to strengthen its programs on road safety, accident prevention, and risk reduction through its new training innovations and Dealer Road Safety Program, which features training courses and audiovisuals to provide customers with road safety tips. These tips also aim to eliminate bad habits on the road, which alarmingly cause accidents that kill over 10,300 Filipinos a year according to the World Health Organization. This is why it is important for HSDC to provide these courses to promote intelligent, safe and responsible motorcycle riding.

This is aligned with Honda’s commitment not only to provide quality products and services with technological expertise, but also safe riding practices for every Filipino family to further experience the joy of riding Honda motorcycles and driving Honda cars.

For more information about Honda Philippines and its upcoming events, go towww.hondaph.com or follow the official Facebook page atfacebook.com/hondaph/.