Boost defense vs cyber attacks
By Nidz Godino
"Yesterday, the President called us and he's really very frustrated with what's happening here… he actually told us we should really beef up our defenses," Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered DICT to beef up its defenses against cyber attackers.
Dy told media FMJ was frustrated over data leaks in government agencies in past weeks.
FMJ wants DICT to be proactive and enhance defense against hackers.
"He wants to know technical details…he said we shouldn't be reacting after fact, we should be preparing before it happens," he stressed.
Among government agencies subjected to cyber attacks and suffered data leaks are Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Authorities have already identified suspects behind breach in PSA and suspect posted and leaked data from PSA and DOST.
No sensitive information was compromised on data leak on OneExpert portal, DOST said.
In statement, DOST VI regional director Rowen Gelonga said security incident was reported to department by Philippine National Computer Emergency Response Team on Aug. 31,2023, regarding OneExpert website.
He said project team conducted investigation and found out compromise account may have been used to access site.
"Appropriate actions were implemented to address incident, additional security measures were put in place and website's normal operations were restored soon after, while incident may cause concern among affected individuals and public, we would like to assure everyone no sensitive information has been compromised," Gelonga said.
Gelonga said OneExpert portal serves as public registry of Filipino experts, aimed at enhancing access to their services and expanding reach of science and technology assistance to clients within country.
"While list of clients or users is not readily accessible through portal, website's use is diligently monitored and are made available as part of DOST official records, however, some data resembled those from site was posted on Facebook on Oct. 8, 2023. ..these data contained some publicly listed names of technical experts, their email addresses as well as users with their email addresses," Gelonga said.
For his part, Science Secretary Renato Solidum said what was affected by data breach was OneExpert website being operated by DOST Region 6.
"It was separate system, it was not the whole system, it was managed by regional DOST, Visayas Region 6… website is run by project, it is not really connected with our host system," he noted.
Solidum added appropriate actions were implemented to address incident, adding that data breach was not indication of vulnerability of DOST website.
"Additional security measures were put in place and website's normal operation was restored soon after," he said.
At the same time, Solidum said government agencies should be wary of security of their websites, adding it should be standard for all agencies to make sure their IT systems are really safe.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said increase in number of agencies affected by hacking should be cause for concern.
"Since I came from private sector, it is really cause for concern but this is to be expected and guarded against every day if you have IT platform or system, you need to expect and what are measures you will take to prevent or to remedy incidents of hacking," Teodoro said.
Philippine National Police Forensic Group has sought help of Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) in its probe on supposed data breach on its system.
Maj. Michael Ignacio, Forensic Group's information technology officer, said they have tapped ACG's services in finding out if their system was really hacked.
"They have capability to investigate regarding cyber security," Ignacio said at news briefing at Camp Crame.
Forensic Group is among government institutions supposedly suffered data breach, based on social media post.
Ignacio want to find out if data allegedly stolen was just from dummy accounts, they usually use when testing their computer system.
So far, they are no indications that sensitive information was stolen.
"We are assuring public that there is nothing to worry about…we have implemented some systems," he said.
Meanwhile, PSA said data breach has affected limited data from its Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS).
"Based on investigation, links posted by bad actors lead to limited data taken from CBMS Management Information System," PSA said in statement.
CBMS is technology-based system of collecting data used for planning, implementation and monitoring of programs at local level, as well as for targeting households for social protection programs.
"Investigations have confirmed data in Philippine Identification System, Civil Registry System and more than 100 other censuses and surveys agency conducts are unaffected," PSA said.
Joint investigation is being undertaken by PSA with DICT, National Computer Emergency Response Team-Philippines, PNP-ACG, National Bureau of Investigation Cybercrime Division and NPC Compliance and Monitoring Division on data breach.
"Leads for identification of bad actors have been provided to PNP and NBI for further action," it said.
NPC has launched database search portal designed to help PhilHealth members verify if their personal information was among those leaked through recent ransomware attack.
In a statement late NPC announced it has launched "Na-leak ba ang PhilHealth Data ko?" portal for the effort.
To utilize portal, users are required to enter their PhilHealth Identification Number (PIN) and portal will verify whether their personal information was part of leaked data.
To access "Na-leak ba ang PhilHealth Data ko?" database search tool, visit: https://philhealthleak.privacy.gov.ph/.
NPC said as of Oct. 13, initial batch of data available on portal pertains to individuals aged 60 years and above, containing estimated one million records out of 8.5 million senior citizens.
NPC stressed portal exclusively focuses on this specific incident and does not encompass data breaches from other sources or incidents.
Negative result from this search should not be misconstrued as assurance of data security in other areas, it added.
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