DICT allays public fear amid latest cyberattack on DOST
By Sonny Daanoy
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Thursday, April 4 advised the public not to worry after a cyberattack compromised two terabytes (TB) of data from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) server.
"There is certainly a reason for people to be concerned and for them to be aware of what is happening, but to the extent that they should worry, perhaps it's not necessary to worry,” DICT Assistant Secretary Renato Paraiso said in an online press briefing.
“We have a working DICT, and as for the scientists whose data was compromised, I think they also have their products and creations in mind, and these are registered anyway,” he added in a mix of English and Filipino.
He then emphasized that, in terms of the breached data, "I think that if there are any effects, they are manageable. The impact is not that huge.”
Paraiso said that the situation is now under control as they have implemented remedial measures.
“We have isolated the affected systems, quarantined the endpoints, and separated the Wi-Fi. Our next steps involve retrieving access and conducting an investigation into the incident," he said.
2 million cyberattack attempts a day
"Let me put it into context. On a daily basis, we have around two million attacks happening in our country, both in private and public institutions like our government,” Paraiso said.
“So, if there are things that manage to slip through, it's like a shotgun approach. They also try to employ AI (artificial intelligence) in these attacks, which makes it easier now compared to before," he added.
However, despite millions of cyberattack attempts, Paraiso pointed out that the DICT is up for the challenge as mandated.
Hacking of PhilHealth more severe than DOST
DICT said the data compromised in the DOST incident is much larger compared to the data breached in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in 2023.
However, Paraiso noted that the compromised data in DOST is not that sensitive since in PhilHealth, it involves personal data of its members.
"These involve schematics inside, we estimate around two terabytes of data," Paraiso said.
"Here, mostly, the data are under the custody of DOST that involves proposals for inventions. Even their backups and redundancies were also compromised," he added.
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