DICT: PH now 'significantly better' in addressing cyberattacks

An official from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Wednesday said the Philippines is now ''significantly better'' when it comes to addressing cyberattacks. 

''We're significantly better now, our detection mechanisms are there, our protective systems are there and you will notice that we're also sharing information with our allies," said DICT Undersecretary Jeffry Ian Dy.

Dy also said that there have been around 2,900 early detections of hacking attempts at government agencies, including local government units.

''Are we at par with our regional counterparts? To give you an example, Singapore is only like 6 million people, but they are detecting approximately 18,000 attacks per year. We are only detecting around 3,000 per year. But we are 118 million Filipinos," Dy explained.

"So, I think we need to improve this by for example having a cybersecurity law that will mandate even the private sector to report to us, if there is a cybersecurity incident,'' he added.

Recently, the National Bureau of Investigation said it arrested three individuals who were allegedly behind the hacking of several private and government websites, banks, and Facebook accounts.

According to the NBI, the arrest stemmed from information regarding incidents of multiple unauthorized access attempts and breaches of private and government websites.

The NBI said it tracked the movements of the identified hackers and monitored their activities on social media, forums, and public databases to establish patterns and connections. —VAL, GMA Integrated News