Telcos block 17 B attempts to open malicious sites
PLDT Inc. & Smart Communications Inc. blocked over 17 billion attempts to open malicious sites by the end of 2022, the telcos reported Friday, January 13.
"We are working 24/7 to block scams and fraudulent messages, as well as mobile accounts being used in criminal activities,” says Angel Redoble, FVP and Chief Information Security Officer.
The telcos' Cyber Security Operations Group (CSOG) blacklisted 5.5 million domains being used in phishing, spam, and hoax activities.
Smart also prevented 433 million SMShing messages from reaching customers in the same time frame.
These messages often come with links to phishing sites that harvest customers’ personal data. Smart has also blocked more than 400,000 mobile numbers involved in the illegal activities.
Furthermore, CSOG fended off 182 million cyber-attacks and data breach incidents.
PLDT and Smart’s threat intelligence sources has enabled CSOG to amass 123 million indicators of compromise in its database that it also uses for cyber-attack correlation.
Recognizing children as key stakeholders, PLDT and Smart remain hard at work to end online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC).
In 2022, the PLDT Group has foiled more than 1.3 billion attempts to access URLs that show child sexual abuse materials (CSAM).
In December alone, the CSOG has added more than half a million URLs hosting CSAMs to its blacklist.
The PLDT Group’s child protection platform is a vital cog in its fight against OSAEC as the technology blocks online child abuse materials at the more difficult content level.
Their membership to the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation and Project Arachnid of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has enabled them to quickly identify and cut access to URLs hosting CSAMs.