DICT unit breached; defaced with political message

A unit within the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) experienced a data breach on Tuesday morning.

The DICT downplayed the incident, stating it was minor and did not affect the central system; however, cybersecurity experts raised concerns about the state's weak cyberdefense.

Assistant Secretary Renato A. Paraiso revealed that the compromised division's website was defaced with political messages urging better cybersecurity practices from a hacker known as 'ph1ns', who has also breached other government websites.

Paraiso noted that the breached system is intentionally designed to be less secure for quicker emergency response, containing only minimal data including information on fewer than ten employees and emergency assets.

The National Privacy Commission has been notified as some personal employee information was compromised; however, the DICT said no sensitive data was affected with only less than 5 megabytes of information impacted.

Cybersecurity advocacy organization Deep Web Konek shared a screenshot of the defaced website where the hacker left a political message urging stronger cybersecurity measures.

Experts warn that this breach follows several other reported data breaches affecting major corporations in the Philippines and could invite more hacking attempts, emphasizing the need for the DICT to take cybersecurity seriously.