THE House of Representatives is looking for ways to increase the budget allocation for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to boost the cybersecurity of the country after it stripped off its confidential funds for 2024.
Amid the series of cyberattacks to various government agencies such as the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, Department of Science and Technology, Philippine National Police, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the House of Representatives, House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Ako-Bicol party list Representative Elizaldy Co said they recognize the need for a bigger budget allocation for the DICT.
“We recognize the dire need of the DICT for resources to fight cybercrime and ransomware attacks. We will work with our colleagues in the Senate to look for more sources of funds for the DICT,” Co said in a statement.
“For the continuing ransomware attacks, we convey to the Department of Budget and Management the urgent need for additional funds for the DICT and for government agencies being attacked and vulnerable to cyberattack,” he added.
Co said additional funding for the DICT, particularly on IT security and ransomware countermeasures, can be pulled from the unprogrammed fund of the 2023 national budget, as well as from the savings of the National Government.
Philhealth recently experienced hacking, causing it to shut down its system for several days.
The agency refused to give in to the demands of the hackers for it to pay $300,000 or around P16 million so the data they have captured will be deleted and for the Philippine authorities be given the key to decrypt the data the hackers have encrypted.
Personal information of some of Philhealth’s members were compromised and were posted in the dark web following the cyberattack.
The DICT said Medusa, which is responsible for the attack against the Philhealth system, was a foreign and a “very sophisticated group.”
For the PSA, the attack was made in its Community-based Monitoring System, which gathers data on a local level, serving as a basis for targeting households in the planning, budgeting and implementation of government programs including the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
The DICT said the suspect is somewhat local and “amateurish.”
On Sunday, October 15, the website of the House of Representatives was also hacked.
The hackers “3musketeerz” displayed the House’s website’s homepage a troll face meme while the schedule of committee meetings was also altered.
The photo journals section and press releases were also filled with troll face images.
The House said they are expecting to address the matter within the day.
The National Government is seeking the allocation of a P8.729 billion budget for 2024 to the DICT.
This includes P300 million confidential funds, which were removed by the House last week for the allocation of more funds to government agencies in charge of securing the West Philippine Sea.
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said they will appeal the decision of the House of Representatives, as he noted the importance of a well-secured cyberspace.
Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros has filed a resolution seeking the conduct of a probe into the spate of cyberattacks to government agencies, as well as the sufficiency of prevailing cybersecurity measures in government and government preparedness against malicious hacking and data breach.
“The breach of personal and sensitive information kept by government agencies endangers the safety and security of all Filipinos -- leaving us even more vulnerable to increasingly nefarious schemes involving text message spams, online scams, phishing, financial fraud, extortion, blackmail, and identity theft,” said Hontiveros.
Based on data from the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, there were 16,297 reported cybercrime cases recorded in the first quarter of 2023.
Hontiveros said there could be more cases that are not being reported.
Senator Grace Poe said the DICT and the concerned government agencies must put a stop to these incidents, which she said put the country’s security, not only important records and sensitive data, at stake.
“Departments and agencies must invest in strong cyber security infrastructures to safeguard public records,” she said.
“Hindi pwedeng business as usual at maghintay na lang sa susunod na biktima ng data breach. Kailangan matigil ang hacking at mapanagot ang mga salarin,” she added.
(It cannot be business as usual and just wait for the next victim of a data breach. Hacking needs to be stopped and the perpetrators held accountable.) (SunStar Philippines)