The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Thursday, July 4 said that it had communicated with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) regarding the alleged data breach in the agency.
In a Viber message, the DICT noted that it had already offered assistance to the DFA, which is currently investigating the alleged incident.
The cyber attack came to light after cybersecurity watchdog Deep Web Konek (DWK) reported the incident on July 3.
"Earlier today (July 3), a data breach occurred at the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Department of Foreign Affairs) with sensitive email data now being sold online," DWK said in a social media post.
It noted that the threat actor of the alleged data breach was the "chengyi."
"The Deep Web Konek Team on its initial assessment found out that several confidential documents were included in the sample provided," it said.
"We already alerted the Department of Foreign Affairs about the breach," it added.
Meanwhile, DICT Assistant Secretary Renato "Aboy" Paraiso, who is also the spokesperson for the agency, said that the DFA has its own Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to investigate the alleged cyber attack.
"So, we are just waiting for their update and for them to ask us for help," he explained in a mix of English and Filipino.
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