Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 12) – The cyberattack on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) may be an inside job and a local hacker could be involved, the Department of Communications and Information Technology (DICT) said Thursday.
Asked by reporters if it was looking into an “inside job” angle, DICT Usec. Jeffrey Dy said it was possible as the affected community based monitoring system (CBMS) was only accessible internally.
READ: PSA says alleged data breach limited to one system
“It [CMBS] is also web-based. Parang internal web, accessible by the regional offices. Again na we’re only in the internal investigation so we cannot confirm,” he added.
The PSA, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and possibly other government agencies have been hit by cyberattacks, putting government data and the personal information of millions of Filipinos at risk.
Dy said the attack on the PSA was not as sophisticated as the “Medusa” ransomware on PhilHealth, meaning the actor behind the breach is less complex.
“In fact we already have certain leads and we will be providing those information both to PSA and law enforcement agencies so they can follow up. Perhaps we can catch the hacker. We believe the hacker to be local,” he added.
As for the compromised PSA data, Dy said these were forms used for household surveys containing demographic information such as the name of the head of a family, income levels, the number of people in a given home, and the number of siblings.
“Unfortunately because it is a household survey, there are also personable identifiable information there like names. Kahit hindi eksaktong [even if it’s not the exact] address but the barangay, and some contact details,” he said, adding that these were initially uploaded to Google Drive but the data spread online.
The PSA, meanwhile, is also probing the hack into its system but said it was sure that its PhilSYS and Civil Registration Services were not compromised.
DICT needs confidential funds for cyberattack prevention
A House panel has unanimously decided to clear the confidential funds of DICT, among other agencies, amid reports of hacking on government agencies’ systems.
But new DICT spokesperson Aboy Paraiso explained that procuring a cyberattack prevention system without confidential funds would give hackers an idea how to wriggle into the system.
“Kung magpo-procure ho kami ng isang sistema na hindi ho dadaan through confidential funds, we will be forced, umpisa pa lang, na sabihin sa aming terms of reference ano ‘yung ipo-procure naming system, ano ‘yung mga requirements namin,” Paraiso said.
[Translation: If we are going to procure a system that will not go through confidential funds, we will be forced, right from the start, to disclose in our terms of reference the system we are going to procure and the requirements.]
Paraiso said hackers who intend to infiltrate government agencies might easily detect the reliability of their online systems.
With reports from CNN Philippines’ Daniza Fernandez.
