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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider 'Back to basics': DICT urges public to stay vigilant after WHO cyberattack

'Back to basics': DICT urges public to stay vigilant after WHO cyberattack

Published Nov 15, 2023 05:04 am

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) reminded Filipinos on Tuesday, Nov. 14 to "go back to basics" and avoid opening any suspicious websites.

dict logo.jpg
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)

"Let's go back to basics and make it a habit to be vigilant. Let's not click on those things (suspicious websites)," DICT spokesperson Assistant Secretary Aboy Paraiso said in Filipino in a radio interview.

The DICT verified that the World Health Organization (WHO) database was breached, and experts saw that information about Covid-19 vaccinations in the Philippines and India was being shared on the dark web.

"We gained insight because our intelligence assets from the DICT to our in-charge of our National Computer Emergency Response Team detected on various platforms and on the dark web that there were data dumps regarding Covid-19 data from two countries: the Philippines and India," Paraiso said.

"What reached their data bank were Covid-19-related data. However, this can now be used for phishing websites to gather information," he added.

Meanwhile, Paraiso said the incident is complicated because it is outside of DICT's jurisdiction.

He did, however, confirm that WHO is already looking into the incident.

Paraiso emphasized the importance of taking precautionary measures to avoid falling victim to data breach-related online scams.

"To prevent it from being misused, let's always make it a habit to change our passwords and adopt very strong passwords," he said.

"Let's avoid using our personal information as passwords," he added.

Paraiso said using multi-factor authentication, such as one-time passwords (OTP) and biometrics, will strengthen the security of various online accounts.

"We now have multi-factor authentication. This means that our accounts don't just rely on a password for access," he said.

Related Tags

Department of Information and Communications Technology Department of Health (DOH) World Health Organization (WHO)
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