Cyberattacks target gov’t, academe, telco—DICT

The Department of Information and Communications Technology said that the government, academe, and telecommunication industry are the main targets of cyberattacks in the country everyday.

“At any given day, approximately 2.1 million threats are being monitored by the National Security Operations Center,” DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said.

“Fifty percent (of the attacks) target the government, 30% target the academe, 10% target the telecommunications industry, the remaining 10% is usually banking or health sectors, etc,” he added.

Stakeholders expressed worry that this would worsen if Senate Bill 2699 or the Konektadong Pinoy Act is enacted into law.

CitizenWatch Philippines said SB2699 seeks to eliminate the need for a congressional franchise for telecommunication companies and will diminish the regulatory powers of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) into mere oversight.

The bill will also strip the NTC of its oversight functions and reduce it to a mere registrar, which could be detrimental to consumers and the country's telco space as a whole, CitizenWatch added.

"The Konektadong Pinoy Act proposes to reduce the NTC’s role to that of a mere registrar, stripped of its oversight functions. If the NTC’s role is diminished, consumers may find themselves with little recourse when faced with poor service or unfair practices," CitizenWatch lead convenor Orlando Oxales said.

“A worse, more alarming scenario could also emerge. These may open opportunities for cybercrime syndicates to infiltrate and cause harm to our individual and enterprise consumers in both the government and private sectors,” he added.

Stratbase ADR Institute, in a separate statement, urged lawmakers “to take a second look at how, in our pursuit of connectivity, we may be opening ourselves up to abuses from entities that have malicious intent and whose goals may be different from what the law claims it wants,”.

On the other hand, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) expressed support for the Konektadong Pinoy bill. 

NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the proposed measure “aims to reduce costs and expand access to high-quality internet services for all Filipinos, especially those in unserved and underserved areas.”  

He added that it will also promote competition in the digital space which would result in affordable cost for digital connectivity among Filipinos.

Meanwhile, Globe Telecom invested around $90 million to tighten its cyber security measures amid the continuous rise of cyberattacks in the Philippines.—Mariel Celine Serquiña/AOL, GMA Integrated News