DICT thwarts cyberattack attempts after Marcos Jr. directive

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. ordered the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to brace for potential Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) cyberattacks on November 5.

The DICT confirmed receiving the directive and activated "Oplan Cyber Dome" to safeguard government digital services.

DICT Secretary Henry Aguda urged the public to remain vigilant, use official applications or status pages for updates, and avoid engaging in illegal online activities.

He clarified that DDoS attacks aim to overwhelm systems with simultaneous requests, rather than breach data, and that no personal information, accounts, or money are at risk.

As of November 5, the DICT reported that the anticipated DDoS cyberattacks have not yet affected major services, and that anti-DDoS equipment successfully countered attempts to increase traffic.

The threat appears global in scale and the DICT is coordinating with partner agencies to mitigate potential impacts.

Critical private sector information infrastructure, including banks, telecommunications companies, and hospitals, were also prepared to counter any DDoS attacks.