NPC Conducts Privacy Compliance Check on BPI

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) is conducting a privacy compliance check on the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) after the recent incident that caused the bank’s electronic channels to be temporarily suspended, inconveniencing many of its clients.

The compliance check will evaluate the existing governance, organizational, physical and technical measures in place and seek to address any gaps especially in the bank’s breach management protocol, with the view of preventing or mitigating similar incidents in the future.

Under Republic Act No. 10173, otherwise known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Data Privacy Act), the NPC is mandated to ensure compliance of institutions with its provisions, which includes data breach notification, management and mitigation.

The NPC has been in contact with the bank since 7 June 2017, the first day news about the incident spread on social media. The high profile nature of the incident, and the potential harm to thousands of data subjects prompted the Commission to immediately coordinate with the bank and its data protection officer to work towards containing the breach and lessening the impact of the incident.

According to Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro; “We appreciate BPI’s efforts to establish communication with the Commission throughout this episode to assuage our concern for the privacy of their depositor’s personal data. We highly regard the bank’s assurances. As advocate and vanguard of people’s privacy rights, however, the NPC’s public mandate compels us to look even further and deeper into this matter,” Liboro said. “We believe the BPI management fully understands this, because of our shared goal of ensuring the protection of the privacy rights and interests of their clients” he added.

The BPI incident was reported to have been caused by human error resulting in previously posted transactions to be reposted. The discovery of the error prompted to the Bank to suspend access to thousands of accounts. The BPI incident involved a breach in security affecting the availability and integrity of information that relates to individuals, considered a personal data breach under NPC’s memorandum circular on personal data breach management (NPC MC 16-03).

Commissioner Liboro explains further, "First, the BPI incident impacted information which is considered personal under the Data Privacy Act. This includes the processing of data, which is capable of uniquely identifying data subjects, such as the account information of BPI and BPI Family Bank customers contained in BPI’s systems. Second, the nature of the incident impacted both the availability and integrity of personal information considering that the incident resulted in the posting of erroneous account information and the prevention of its access to account holders. Under the law, impacts to availability and integrity of personal information may constitute a breach where loss and/or alteration to personal information occurs, whether accidentally or unlawfully."

Commissioner Liboro underscored the importance of data protection in the Internet age. “With many services being on-line, a simple data processing error can affect thousands of data subjects as well as have national impact, we can’t help to reiterate the importance of good house keeping for data processing systems and having breach management protocols in place compliance with data protection and privacy regulations reduces breach incidents and puts data subjects out of harm's way.” Commissioner Liboro said.

The National Privacy Commission recently held a general assembly of Data Privacy Officers (DPO) in the banking industry. The event, called DPO2, was conducted in cooperation with banking regulator the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP). After government, the NPC believes that the banking and finance sector's Personal Information Controllers (PICs) are involved in high-risk processing, because of the nature of the data they process and the potential impact of breaches to economic security.

League of Corporate Foundations to Hold CSR Expo for 2017

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I am always reminded by the words of many thought leaders that all our efforts of reaching out to others in the form of donations, medical missions, etc., would become nothing more but a repetitious activity if we would not empower the people themselves.

We've all heard about so many Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs or something similar but differently named activities conducted by many companies, NGOs, foundations, etc., I've posted so many of these stories on my site coming from many brands or companies, and though I am deeply grateful for the effort, I would like to ask if we are really making a significant change on the lives of these people we are trying to save.

Since every little thing counts, and we've also heard about stories giving hope and inspiration among those we've helped. But I do believe we could do more if we also come up with more long-term programs that would come hand-in-hand with our initial outreach.

However, many are saying that these activities seem to be nothing more but an opportunity for photo and video coverage so companies could compile the stories as part of their corporate portfolio to show how they are compassionate and giving towards others. People would see these companies flaunt to the whole world that they are advocates for change and development of our society. This may be the case for corporations, but entirely different for individuals who would even leave their stable jobs just to help. Somehow, I would tend to agree to all of these but deep inside I know that there are more going on behind the scenes.

Though we all know there could be vested interests (especially for businesses that we keep reading in the news), these efforts also inspire others to follow or emulate, and even go beyond than the usual. Those who tend to benefit from these generous benefactors are the beneficiaries.

I am more proud of those whose activities include empowering the communities. Only when we empower others to stand up on their own and work hard for their livelihood, that is the only time when we will be successful in uplifting the lives of the people we are trying to save.

Just as how informal settlers would return to their dilapidated homes because there are no means of livelihood at their new settlement provided by the government, those we are trying to feed, cure, nourish, etc., will be more likely forever dependent if we do not empower them to become more of what they are now.

The League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) will be having an event on July 19 to 20, 2017 at Dusit Thani Hotel and Glorietta Activity Center for their series of talks from many reputable speakers coming from various sectors, and an expo for public awareness of the many foundations.

The LCF is a network of over 80 of the largest operating and grant-making corporate foundations and corporations in the country. Since 2001, we have been celebrating the annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Week in July.

In 2016, LCF celebrated its 20th year and commemorated the annual CSR week with the theme “Co-creating the Future through CSR”. The creation of integrated value and the recognition of a singular global development agenda paved the way for organizations to work further towards collective movement.

This 2017, on LCF’s 16th year of observing CSR week and its 21st year as a dynamic network of corporate foundations and corporations, our CSR Expo theme “Disrupting for Social Good” will create another milestone for LCF, as we all move toward disrupting the status quo and effecting greater change and impact with a wider reach.
Their special guest during their media launch held at the Villar SIPAG Laurel House, Shaw Boulevard cor. S. Laurel St. Mandaluyong City on Wednesday, June 14, from 10AM to 12nn, was former Environment Secretary Regina "Gina' Lopez who is often referred to as an advocate for the environment even before she was appointed as the DENR Secretary, and she only got kick out by the Commission on Appointments mainly not because of her lack of following due process but because she was very controversial with his fight against irresponsible mining.

Sadly, our government is still full of scalawags with a lot to gain if the mining companies continue to operate. Business is business especially for those involved in mining so there are probably moves that were made to ensure she is removed from her office.

However, she also has allies mostly among businessmen who would gladly support her with her endeavors, and being part of the equally powerful Lopez clan, she also has many resources she could tap to put into action her projects.

She gave a lengthy talk, and presented a few videos too, including one that showed how passionate and emotionally touched she is regarding the sad fate that our fellowmen has to undergo at a community destroyed by the mining industry. She also talked about her other efforts, and another video showing her latest TV show that looks more like another travel show but if you look a lot more closer, you might also feel her sincerity not just to protect the environment but also the community affected by its destruction. She would probably show how beautifully blessed the country is, and encourage us to sustain it so that the future generation would also appreciate its wonders.

When you visit the expo or listen to the talks on the 19th and 20th of July, I urge you to ask for their efforts towards significant long-term projects that would be more helpful for our countrymen. You may also want to ask how you could help with your own little way. We should not limit the opportunity to the big players but also seek the cooperation of the little ones. Big or small, everyone's help is necessary.

In my own little ways like participating in the recent community outreach at two barangay schools located at Bontoc, Mountain Province, joining the Pasig Rehabilitation Council Commission on their Pasig River Tour, asking thought-provoking questions to the people I met during Independence Day celebrations at Quirino Grandstand, and many more that I do through my story-telling by means of blogs, vlogs and social media, I seek to find more ways I could help out and inspire others in the process.

Our country is rich not only in natural resources but also of loving and caring people, but when desperation comes, some would resort to either criminal acts or dangerous addiction to drugs and other vices. None of these would ever happen if we have enough opportunities for everyone to flourish and live a decent life.

We are thankful for all the CSR programs from many foundations, but now is the time that even the poorest of the poor, should be taught how to pull themselves out from the slums.

We all know the real answers to the issues, but some of us just want to sensationalize everything for our own fun and pleasure. It's like pointing out the obvious with only the intention to mock or ridicule others.

It would be very rare for anybody, especially for the government, to admit their mistakes, or greed, whichever is more prominent or valid as the reason. You cannot force anyone to commit a career suicide. We will all forever be in denial.

But this country would not improve or change for the better if all of us are forever divided by continuously finding faults on others without offering any concrete solutions.

We also forget about our own shortcomings. It's like complaining about the floods, but we kept on throwing our cigarette butts, used water bottles or candy wrappers on the streets, cutting trees for parking spaces or paper, destroying lands to mine for copper, polluting the river with our waste, etc.,

Like many of us, we are all very much inclined to uplift ourselves above and way ahead of others. We all seek convenience, comfort and luxury. What is sad is that we sort of step on others on our way to the top. Every time we limit opportunities to only a few, just because we want exclusivity, we tend to sacrifice the welfare of the nation.

Remember that this nation would only progress if our mindset would only be "Walang Iwanan" and "Sama-Sama" towards success. No man should be left behind.

More photos and videos on our official Wazzup Pilipinas social media pages like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc

SAP Simplifies Business Planning and Consolidation Based on SAP BW/4HANA

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SAP SE announced the general availability of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC) 11.0, version for SAP BW/4HANA. The application improves mission-critical business processes including planning, budgeting, forecasting and financial consolidation and reporting, all in one unified solution. Thus, it supports more strategic decision making through accelerated insight to action and serves as a basis for finance transformation and innovation. This announcement was made at SAPinsider Financials being held June 14–17 in Amsterdam.

“In our quest to make it easier for customers to plan, budget, forecast, consolidate and share a consistent view of financial information and key metrics throughout the organization, SAP BPC now leverages the streamlined simplicity achieved in SAP S/4HANA® and SAP BW/4HANA,” said Mala Anand, president of Analytics at SAP. “This simplified architecture eliminates data replication and reduces hardware and administration costs while allowing customers to perform real-time analysis and planning across entire ERP landscapes. Finance departments no longer require separate systems for transactions and analytics.”

Ingmar Christiaens, Partner Advisory Services, EY, said: “The SAP S/4HANA suite has made tremendous progress supporting the CFO’s agenda to build an agile finance function. SAP has now taken another big step forward in the planning and consolidation space with SAP BPC, version for SAP BW/4HANA. The modern user interface enables users to easily access enhanced analytic features and experience accelerated performance from the increased use of core SAP HANA functions.”

Cliff Eng, SAP finance transformation partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “SAP BPC, version for SAP BW/4HANA, provides a flexible option for SAP customers seeking to enhance their finance capabilities on the SAP HANA technology. This solution is expected to unlock several performance improvement opportunities. SAP's newest offering can provide finance organizations with the ability to rapidly develop more comprehensive planning models, which may lead to better insight and improved decision making.”

The latest release of SAP BPC provides:

Simplicity

·         Simplified financial models in SAP BW/4HANA

·         Streamlined data-loading processes with the ability to load sources from across the enterprise and beyond

·         One product for planning and consolidation

High Performance

·         Faster planning and close cycles with calculations pushed down to SAP HANA®

·         More detailed planning with no restrictions on granularity or calculations

·         Improved scalability and performance via SAP BW/4HANA

Connectivity

·         Increased openess with the ability to incorporate data from cloud applications and other third-party data sources

·         Improved decision making and a more complete view of the business

·         Extended reporting and analysis, and hybrid planning scenarios thanks to integration with the SAP Analytics Cloud solution

The version of SAP BPC for SAP BW/4HANA additionally allows customers to extend planning beyond finance to other line-of-business planning scenarios. Customers using previous versions of SAP BPC, the integrated planning functionality in the SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application, and the planning applications kit (an SAP BW–based planning solution) can maintain their current investment in SAP BW and gain further technical and functional benefits upon migration to SAP BW/4HANA.

Seamless Integration of SAP BPC and SAP Analytics Cloud Enables Deeper Analytics and Hybrid Planning

SAP Analytics Cloud allows users to plan, analyze and predict business outcomes all in one place. Users can seamlessly move their BPC data and models into the cloud for further planning, self-service visualization and predictive analytics. Finance departments can perform more in-depth analysis by using predictive functions on current data sets combined with potential business challenges and influences before running a budget or forecast. Additionally, the business process flows in SAP BPC provide full integration to extend a hybrid planning process between SAP BPC and SAP Analytics Cloud. This allows for full movement of data and dimensions in a bidirectional manner for broadening business planning scenarios on premise and in the cloud.



For additional information, please read the SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 11.0, version for SAP BW/4HANA blog. For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.