Canada and the Philippines convened a high-level cyber working group in Manila in July 2025 to strengthen cooperation in countering increasingly complex digital threats to regional stability.
The nations’ robust partnership is anchored by their Defense Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, with a visiting forces agreement expected to be signed soon.
“This visit highlights the importance of our partnership with the Philippines in promoting cyber resilience and safeguarding a secure and open digital environment,” Maj. Gen. Dave Yarker, commander of the Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command, said in a news release. “By working closely with our regional partners, we strengthen not only our own capabilities but also contribute to peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific.”
Senior officials from the Canadian and Philippine armed forces and the Philippines’ National Defense Department discussed shared challenges and opportunities, including artificial intelligence (AI), critical infrastructure protection, and joint training and technical exchanges.
“We all know that the cyber threats we are facing are rapidly evolving,” Philippine Defense Undersecretary Angelito De Leon said. “From state-sponsored activities to ransomware to disinformation attacks on national critical infrastructure — these challenges are becoming more complex, persistent and increasingly intertwined with broader international security concerns.
“Amid all this, the need for trusted partnerships built on shared values and common commitment to peace, security, and the responsible use of cyberspace is essential and urgent.”
During a bilateral meeting at the 2025 Digital Defence Symposium in Singapore in late July, the nations reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cyber defense cooperation.
Ottawa’s advanced cyber infrastructure and experience defending critical systems from state and nonstate actors offers lessons for Manila, according to Don McLain Gill, an international studies lecturer at De La Salle University in the Philippines.
“The Philippines has been a continuous victim of various forms of cyber threats, be it in the form of foreign malign information operations, foreign interference and disinformation campaigns that seek to delegitimize the government and at the same time create public unrest,” said Gill, who also is an Indo-Pacific research fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
In 2024, 85% of Philippine companies experienced AI-driven cyberattacks, according to global technology firm Cisco’s 2025 Cybersecurity Readiness Index. In one incident, China-based hackers tried to breach the networks of the Philippines’ presidential office and other government agencies, including one focused on maritime security.
“This, of course, plays to the favor of China, [which] continues to operationalize various elements of its expansionist strategy in the West Philippine Sea,” Gill told FORUM, referring to Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.
“This is where Canada can step in,” he said. “It has a very robust cybersecurity framework for its national security system. If successful, by providing that as an area for cooperation with the Philippines, Canada can help replicate this framework in Southeast Asia.”
