Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 12) — The recent hacking incidents targeting government agencies only proved that the Philippines is vulnerable to cyberattacks, a senator said Thursday as he called for a thorough probe.
In a statement, Sen. Win Gatchalian said the latest cyberattack against the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) was “deeply alarming,” with the issue involving the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) still unresolved.
READ: PSA says alleged data breach limited to one system
“Nagpapakita lamang ito na hindi matatag ang imprastraktura sa bansa para labanan ang banta sa cybersecurity,” he said.
[Translation: This only shows that the infrastructure in the country is not strong enough to combat the cybersecurity threat.]
Joining the call of other senators, Gatchalian said this further stressed the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) need to have confidential funds. A small committee at the House of Representatives tasked with tweaking the budget decided to scrap the secret funds of the DICT and other agencies.
DICT chief Ivan Uy warned on Wednesday that slashing the agency’s proposed budget would weaken it against cyber criminals.
Sen. Mark Villar also expressed his worries about the cyberattacks, saying the government must beef up its cyberspace security “as we are dealing with private and delicate information that could endanger, not just of one institution, but of the general Filipino public.”
“Every time an agency is subjected to these opportunist attacks, the information of the general public is put on the verge of being released into cyberspace where it could be utilized by the wrong hands for criminal activities,” Villar added.
Uy bared in a chance interview that there were more government agencies hit by data breaches. However, some of them opted not to report the matter, the official said.
