SMDC: Building places Filipinos can call home

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

A home, to which one can call their own, is one of the most fundamental human needs for survival. In building one’s family, buying housing or investing in property is often a crucial discussion that takes into consideration price, location, amenities and even the environment as these all impact the way people and families live and grow and how communities thrive in the long-run.

Recently, the many changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused Filipinos to reassess the way they live, work and reside. The topic on home ownership and residential space has only become much more prominent as its impact towards one’s physical, social and emotional wellbeing was emphasized when companies shifted to work-from-home setups and schools introduced blended learning. It has become likely that up and coming homeowners are looking for new and affordable housing that responds to the new realities of school and work, as well as a healthier and more self-sufficient lifestyle.

For leading real estate developer SM Development Corporation (SMDC), the residential arm of SM Prime Holdings, satisfying personal needs and meeting basic survival for the homeowners of today can be done through meaningful and strategic planning and property development.

Over the years, SMDC has been continuously redefining residential spaces to bring accessibility, convenience, function, style and sustainability in the face of evolving trends and lifestyle changes—assuring prospective buyers of the great value that SMDC properties offer.

This means presenting a range of residences located in prime urban and suburban communities, conveniently situated near major road networks and transportation hubs, and designed to reflect SM’s commitment to luxurious urban living. SMDC properties bring commercial retail shops, entertainment venues, banks and leisure facilities closer to residents against a backdrop of lush and walkable spaces. Such open spaces encourage homeowners to dwell outside and take a break from the isolation that has become a norm lately, and allow residents to safely interact with their neighbors. These spaces also provide amenities that promote a healthy lifestyle among the residents.

Across the available properties, prospect homeowners are able to choose their housing type to fit their own or their family’s needs and functions with units ranging from studio rooms to deluxe two-bedroom suites. On top of being able to customize their living spaces, state-of-the-art facilities such as 24-hour security and CCTV system, fire alarm system, numerous WIFI-ready zones and standby generator set ensures continuous function and prime livability.

However, SMDC’s promise not only pertains to providing a greater quality of life, but to also have its communities take an integral role in their commitment towards sustainability. SMDC aims to promote many green living practices by designing walkable and transport-friendly developments, introducing energy-saving and eco-friendly green buildings and encouraging effective waste management programs among residents. For the property developer, homes are seen as a legacy for future generations and should be built for sustainability and for ease in future modification.

With developments still ongoing and more projects in the pipeline, SMDC allows homebuyers the opportunity to have the home of their choice. Through its affordable investment and flexible payment options, new families or young millennials will be able to live independently in communities that cater to their specific needs.

With its ability to empathize and understand current housing needs while having the foresight to address evolving requirements, SMDC continues to create sustainable and resilient living spaces for Filipinos to call their own.

School Principal Wages War on Waste in Cavite

Wazzup Pilipinas!?


“It’s really easy to turn used plastic bottles into bottle bricks,” shares Rhodora Sacramento, a school principal from Cavite. “Just collect as many empty wrappers of candy or junk food as possible, then cut them into small strips and stuff them tightly inside the used plastic bottles. When full, the bottle bricks can be arranged as fences and pathway guides in our schools and homes.”

A veteran school administrator, Rhodora has been waging a War on Waste (WOW) since 2016, leading programs to minimize garbage by convincing her students to stuff plastic wrappers into bottle bricks, giving them their own personal eco-bags and persuading them to throw used bottles and cans in convenient wireframe baskets. Collected bottles and cans are then sold to recyclers. Sales proceeds reached PHP2500 in just the first three months of the program, enough to fund one of Rhodora’s school organization’s Christmas parties.

Bottle bricks were traded to Robinsons Hypermart Bacoor for canvas eco-bags. The bottle bricks were used to build homes for the Yangil tribe in Zambales, while the eco-bags were distributed to Cavite students for their personal use. To further motivate students to maintain the school’s cleanliness, certificates and prizes were awarded to the cleanest rooms at the end of the school year.

“Our War on Waste has drastically reduced the garbage we generate. From around 20 garbage bags a week, we were down to five,” reveals Rhodora, who is currently principal of the Mabolo Elementary School in Bacoor.

The plucky principal is just one of many champions promoting viable ways to reduce plastic waste, preventing them from entering Philippine waterways. She says there are more solutions that can be developed and shared by other schools across the country.

According to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), Cavite generated an average of 1514 tons of waste daily in 2018, 22% or 333 tons of which could still be recycled. The Imus River traverses the highest waste-generating cities in Cavite – Bacoor, Dasmariñas and Imus – making it a conveyor belt for leaked plastic waste flowing out to Manila Bay.

“The Philippines has good solid waste management laws, like Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act,” explains Norlan Talay, a barangay secretary in the municipality of Silang. “The problem is effective implementation, because there are too many residents and too few enforcers. Aside from ramping up enforcement efforts, we need residents to be more cooperative in managing waste. We should do all we can to take care of the world our past generations left us.”

Funded by the Government of Norway, Project ASEANO is led by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) Indonesia in close collaboration with the PEMSEA Resource Facility and ASEAN Secretariat under the purview of the endorsing ASEAN sectoral body, the ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME).

Project ASEANO promotes the development of sound and sustainable measures to reduce the impacts of plastic pollution and their implications on socioeconomic development and the environment. The project focuses on the local level, with Cavite’s Imus River as one of two project sites in Southeast Asia.

The results of the project will be synthesized into knowledge products (LGU toolkit and best practices policy handbook, monitoring tools and technologies for plastics management and so forth) that can be used as a reference by local governments across the ASEAN region with similar priority management concerns.

How Residents Can Reduce Their Garbage

“Residents can do a lot to minimize the trash they generate. On the household level, they should start with proper segregation, separating waste from items that can still be reused, salvaged or recycled,” says Dr. Ed Lineses of De La Salle University Dasmariñas, who led a part of Project ASEANO’s series of studies. “Households can also choose not to use plastic. There are many things we can buy without using plastic packaging. Policymakers should also be more creative in finding ways to incentivize the refusal of plastics by collaborating with sellers, giving them sensible incentives to minimize their reliance on single-use plastics.”

Through the efforts of local champions like principal Rhodora, Asian waterways might soon become a bit cleaner and clearer.

“If a war on waste is what it takes to clean our rivers, then so be it. Schools are one avenue, apart from households to educate young people on the 3Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. The youth are destined to inherit the future, but how it looks shall depend on what they choose to do today,” concludes PEMSEA executive director Aimee Gonzales.

Microsoft introduces Microsoft Security Experts to help organizations achieve more secure, compliant, and productive outcom

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

Microsoft announced that it is offering new and expanded services for security under a new service category, Microsoft Security Experts. Security Experts includes three new managed services—Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting, Microsoft Defender Experts for extended detection and response (XDR), Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise—as well as two existing services, Microsoft Security Experts for Modernization, and Microsoft Security Experts for Incident Response.

The security landscape has become increasingly challenging and complex for all customers. Threats have grown at an alarming rate over the last year, and cybercrime is now expected to cost the world US$10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from US$3 trillion a decade ago and US$6 trillion in 2021.

Last year, Microsoft Security blocked over 9.6 billion malware threats and more than 35.7 billion phishing and other malicious emails. Microsoft Security is actively tracking more than 35 ransomware families and 250 unique threat actors across observed nation-state, ransomware, and criminal activities, and its technology has blocked more than 900 brute force password theft attempts every second.

Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Security, Compliance and Identity at Microsoft, said: “As attacks increase in scale, so must our defenses. It’s getting harder every day for organizations to build and maintain a full security team, let alone one with the ever-expanding skillset required to meet the range of today’s security demands. This is why we are launching Microsoft Security Experts, which combines expert-trained technology with human-led services to help organizations achieve more secure, compliant, and productive outcomes. It is our vision of delivering this category of services end-to-end, across security, compliance, identity, management, and privacy.”



New Managed Services from Microsoft Security

Microsoft has designed three new managed services that will help partners and customers scale their team of experts to fit their needs, without having to face hiring and training challenges.



1. Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting

Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting is for customers who have a robust security operations center but want Microsoft to help them proactively hunt for threats across Microsoft Defender data, including endpoints, Office 365, cloud applications, and identity.

Microsoft’s experts will investigate anything they find and hand off the contextual alert information and remediation instructions to the business for it to quickly respond. The ‘Experts on Demand’ offering will also provide businesses access to consultations with a Microsoft expert about a specific incident, nation-state actor, or attack vector. Businesses will also receive specific recommendations to help them understand and improve their security posture.

Defender Experts for Hunting will be generally available from mid-2022, and interested customers can request to be part of the preview.



2. Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR

Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR is available for customers who need to extend the capacity of their security operations center. It is a managed XDR service that extends beyond endpoints to provide detection and response across Microsoft 365 Defender, investigating alerts, and using automation and human expertise to respond to incidents alongside the business’ security team. This service allows the business to stay in control and reduce costs, excess noise, and manual processes.

Defender Experts for XDR will move into preview in late 2022.



3. Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise

Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise is available for large enterprises looking for more comprehensive, high-touch managed services from Microsoft experts. This comprehensive, expert-led service combines proactive threat hunting and managed XDR, leveraging Microsoft’s complete security information and event management (SIEM) and XDR stack to protect all cloud environments and all platforms. Dedicated Microsoft security experts will manage onboarding, daily interaction, practice modernization, and incident response for businesses.

Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise is sold through a custom statement of work and is available today; interested enterprise customers can contact their Account Executive to learn more.



Existing Security Services

Microsoft Security currently already offers a broad set of services for incident response and advisory through its Microsoft Industry Solutions group. These service offerings are designed to support customers in times of crisis and to help them modernize their security practices. They will become part of the Microsoft Security Experts portfolio moving forward and will be delivered by Microsoft’s global team of professional services experts.



1. Microsoft Security Services for Modernization

Microsoft Security Services for Modernization is for customers who want to take advantage of Microsoft best practices and know-how as they embrace new modern security capabilities and embark on their security transformation.

It provides consulting services that help customers at any stage of their security journey modernize their security posture and embrace a Zero Trust approach. Microsoft’s modernization services utilize extensive cybersecurity knowledge and industry expertise gathered over 35 years to keep businesses secure.



2. Microsoft Security Services for Incident Response

Microsoft Security Services for Incident Response supports customers before, during and after a breach. Incident response and recovery experts will help customers remove a bad actor from their environment, remediate their defenses after a breach, and build resilience against future attacks. Microsoft’s global team of experts will leverage their strategic partnerships with security organizations and governments globally, as well as with internal Microsoft product groups, to respond to incidents and help customers secure their most sensitive, critical environments. ​



Increased Investment in Managed XDR Partners

According to Gartner, 50% of organizations will be using managed detection and response services to contain threats by 2025. Microsoft is fully committed to working with an ecosystem of partners and technologies that provide customers the flexibility to choose what works for them, and to leverage those trusted relationships for the best outcomes and returns on their investment.

To help enable its managed detection and response partners meet this growing demand, Microsoft will be making an incremental multimillion-dollar financial investment this coming year in its managed XDR partner community in three key areas:
Implementing a new managed XDR partner designation within the Microsoft Intelligence Security Association (MISA) to unlock an expanded set of co-marketing benefits, to ensure partner offerings are front and center in each customer conversation.
Launching a new co-sell benefit for managed XDR partners, to help them build their business around Microsoft’s advanced security products.

 
Building new APIs to help ensure partners have access to Microsoft threat intelligence.

These new investments will expand the way Microsoft integrates with its managed XDR partners and create exciting new go-to-market opportunities. More information on the new partner investments will be available during Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference taking place in July 2022, Microsoft Inspire. Further information can also be accessed via the Microsoft Security Experts Partner page.



Visit Microsoft Security Experts’ website to learn more about its solutions.