Philippines Reports Foreign Hacking Efforts Against Intelligence Data, But No Data Leakage

Minister of Information and Communication, Ivan Uy (photo: x @ibcdigital13)

JAKARTA The Philippines has detected hacking attempts by foreign parties targeting the country's intelligence data. However, the Minister of Information and Communication, Ivan Uy, stated on Tuesday, February 18, that so far no leaks have occurred.

According to Uy, this hacking attempt was very widespread and involved a high-level cyber threat or Advanced Persistent Threats (APT). These groups, which are often supported by certain countries, have repeatedly tried to penetrate the Philippine government system but have so far unsuccessful.

"This threat has been around for a long time and comes from various actors, but most of it comes from abroad," Uy said.

He revealed that some of these threats, which he described as "sleepers", had been embedded in the government system before being finally detected through strengthened cybersecurity efforts.

Uy emphasized that until now there has been no indication of cyber attacks targeting important infrastructure in the Philippines. "Hopefully this is because our cyber defense and security is quite strong," he said.

However, he acknowledged that it was very difficult to identify exactly who was behind this attack because many hacking attempts deliberately left a misleading digital footprint.

The Philippine government is now continuing to strengthen its defenses by sharing intelligence with the military and working with other countries through diplomatic channels to validate threats and improve security.

Last year, the Philippines managed to thwart a hacking attempt allegedly from China, which targets presidential websites and email systems and a number of government agencies, including those related to maritime security.