By Bryan Manabat
bryan@mvariety.com
Variety News Staff
AS part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, representatives from the Information Technology and Telecommunications Association of the Pacific or ITTAP, in partnership with the cybersecurity firm Proofpoint and the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, launched a community outreach effort to protect seniors from online scams.
The initiative, which includes presentations at various community organizations, focuses on raising awareness among older adults — a population organizers say is particularly vulnerable to cybercrime.
On Wednesday, District Court for the NMI Cybersecurity Officer Dr. Jonathan Liwag and Proofpoint Director Jose Padilla spoke to seniors at the Office on Aging’s Manamko’ Center in Chinatown. Their presentation covered common scams, including romance scams, social media scams, and phone and email phishing schemes, and included a Q&A session with the manamko’.
“Seniors are often targeted because they have access to their finances and devices, and because they weren’t born into the digital age,” Liwag said. “They’re what we call digital immigrants. Unlike younger generations, they didn’t grow up with this technology, which makes them more susceptible.”
He added that older adults are especially at risk because they often have retirement savings and other financial assets that scammers seek to exploit. “If a 10-year-old gets scammed, they don’t have money to send. But seniors can lose thousands of dollars,” Liwag said.
While global losses from cybercrime are projected to reach $10.5 trillion in 2025, local data on scam victims in the CNMI remains limited. “We want to establish better information on how cybercrime is affecting our community,” Liwag said. “Right now, I’m not aware of any centralized local data collection.”
The organizers said their broader goal is to promote cybersecurity awareness across the community and build a stronger network of IT professionals through ITTAP.
“Just like Dr. Liwag shared, there are a lot of scams out there, and there’s really no good way for us to track them,” Padilla said. “The more we talk about it, the more safety we create. If I tell Jonathan what happened to me, and he says, ‘Hey, I got the same email,’ that kind of awareness helps protect everyone.”
Phishing scams — especially those sent via email — were a key focus of the presentation. The presenters warned that many people unknowingly click on malicious links or attachments, which can install dormant programs that later activate and compromise personal accounts.
“These scams are designed to make you panic or act quickly,” Padilla said. “They’ll say you won something, or that your bank account was compromised. That fear response is what they’re counting on.”
He urged residents to slow down and scrutinize suspicious messages. “Look for misspellings, strange sender addresses, or links that don’t match the usual format. Hover over links before clicking and always take a few seconds to think before acting.”
Both cybersecurity experts noted that stigma and shame often prevent victims from reporting scams, which further obscures the scope of the problem. They encouraged residents to contact government agencies for help and to report suspicious activity, stressing that prevention begins with awareness.
ITTAP, a nonprofit organization, can be reached at ittap.org or by calling 670-235-ITAP (4827).
