THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Tuesday flagged the growing cyber-attacks against Philippine government websites, including those of the Executive branch and some lawmakers, ahead of the midterm elections.

“We are constantly under attack from different sectors, from hackers, from scammers,” DICT Secretary Ivan John E. Uy told a news briefing at the presidential palace. “These are persistent threat actors.”

“We have detected a significant increase in many of the probing and the attacks, especially as we come closer to the elections this coming May,” he added.

Chinese state-backed hackers have penetrated the Philippine government’s Executive branch and “stole sensitive data as part of a years-long campaign,” according to Bloomberg News.

Mr. Uy cited the proliferation of “fake information or disinformation” in cyberspace, adding that his agency is “repelling several hundred thousand attempts” daily.

Some hacking attempts were aimed at the websites of senatorial and congressional candidates, he said.

These hackers are exploiting legacy systems used by some government agencies.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) in July said cybercrimes rose by 21.8% to 4,469 in the first quarter of 2024 from a year earlier.

Ransomware group Medusa in 2023 hacked into the systems of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and leaked sensitive data, including bank details of about 42 million members when the government refused to pay a $300,000 ransom.

Mr. Uy said some hackers were recycling information obtained from their past hacking activities, mostly from 2018 to 2022.

“Then they circulate in the cybersecurity forum,” he told reporters in a Viber message. “Some were even banned by the forum for spreading fake information.”

Mr. Uy said data had not been breached in the most recent hacking attempts because the DICT had detected them early on and secured the system.

“No current information has been compromised,” he said. “What we have seen so far are old data from many years ago that are being regurgitated, recycled just to make an impression that they were successful in doing so.”

He said the DICT has been acquiring new systems to address hacking incidents since “scammers continually upgrade their game and continually acquire new equipment.”

Mr. Uy said the agency is also working with the private sector to help them “be more aware of their cybersecurity preparedness, advising them on how to harden their respective infrastructure or information systems.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza