DICT in talks with China over hacking attempts on Philippine gov’t websites
By Ashley Erika O. Jose, Reporter
THE DEPARTMENT of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said on Wednesday that it is in talks with the Chinese government after discovering that hackers from China were behind a series of attempts to break into Philippine government websites.
“The recent development is that we talked and the Chinese government reached out to the Philippines. They also wanted to crack down hackers and these criminals,” DICT Assistant Secretary Renato A. Paraiso told BusinessWorld by phone.
In January, hackers using Chinese internet protocol (IP) addresses tried to breach the official website of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
Mr. Paraiso said the DICT has traced the attempted hacking incidents on OWWA and the Philippine Coast Guard to the jurisdiction of China.
“We identified these hackers. We have traced their IP addresses within the territorial jurisdiction of China. Then, also by patterns, the techniques that they use we identified them to be part of Panda and Meander which are known Chinese hacker groups,” he said.
Meander and Panda, are China-based cybercriminal groups known for their sophisticated cyber espionage activities, the DICT said.
“Since it is within [China’s] territorial jurisdiction and they also have control over this group, we’re expecting that they would follow through on their promises and pronouncements that they would help crack down these criminals,” Mr. Paraiso said.
At this point, however, the DICT said that it is too early to make conclusions on the groups’ motive in trying to infiltrate the websites of major Philippine government agencies.
“If we’re talking about motives, fortunately and unfortunately, we will never know because on the onset of the attempts we have prevented them from gaining further access to the systems,” Mr. Paraiso said.
He said the government will remain cautious amid growing threats of cyber espionage, adding that the government is monitoring any potential cyber attacks.
“The threat of cyber espionage is always [there]. The DICT is very transparent in disclosing to the public that in any given day, there are at least a million attacks and a million attempts on the government systems,” he said.
Separately on Wednesday, the DICT said it is also verifying reports of another data breach incident affecting the Department of Education (DepEd), where a threat actor is said to have accumulated about 750 gigabytes worth of data.
“We are still verifying this report but we can say that we isolated our investigation to a regional office of the DepEd,” Mr. Paraiso said in a Vibe message to reporters.
To recall, the DICT had said that cyberattacks are expected to further increase this year as attackers will take advantage of the growing digital economy.
The Philippines’ digital economy has been on the rise, with its value expected to reach as high as $150 billion by 2030, mainly driven by e-commerce, according to the e-Conomy report issued by Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Company last year.
In 2023, several government agencies experienced cyberattacks. For instance, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. was hit by Medusa ransomware and more than 600 gigabytes worth of its members’ data were obtained.
