Alan Peter Cayetano suggests reward to catch hackers

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday suggested offering a reward for information that will help catch cybercriminals, after a series of attacks on government websites.

At a hearing on the matter by the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, which he chairs, Cayetano said anyone who reports a hacker could get “P250,000 to P500,000.”

The senator said giving reward money would be “worth it” if it prevents a major data breach.

State insurer PhilHealth was hit by a ransomware attack last month, compromising millions of users' data.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported a "data leak" last week but said that the data taken was "limited."

Over the weekend, the website of the House of Representatives was hacked.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) also said that the systems of the Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine National Police had been hacked. DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy said that the department believes local hackers are behind the recent attacks.

“Let’s challenge our law enforcers. Humuli kayo kasi maniwala kayo, nasa TV yan, nahuli niyo, mare-realize nung iba, akala kasi ng iba-biro biro lang,” Cayetano said.

(You should start catching people because you better believe that when they see on TV that you caught people, the others will realize it, because some think you're not being serious about this.)

The senator added that confidential funds could be “actually useful” for agencies dealing with security, but said that he is “not lobbying” for confidential funds for the DICT.

The House earlier stripped P1.23 billion worth of confidential funds from civilian agencies, including the DICT's P300 million under the proposed 2024 budget, to realign it to other agencies directly mandated to ensure national security, including those at the front lines in defending the country's sovereign rights.

DICT-Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Executive Director Mary Rose Magsaysay said that connectivity is a “political commodity,” highlighting the importance of a higher budget for cybersecurity.

“Pagka hindi ho natin sila binigyan ng confidential funds, ibig sabihin noon, pinipigilan natin ang pagkakaroon ng secured connectivity kasi po ang proactive stance ang pagbabantay ng cybersecurity ng buong Pilipinas ay nasa kanilang shoulders po,” Magsaysay said. 

(If we don't give them confidential funds, we are preventing secured connectivity because the proactive stance of guarding the cybersecurity of the entire country is on their shoulders.) — BM, GMA Integrated News