Cyberattacks pound PH amid sea row

CYBERATTACKS against the Philippines have shot up 325 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024 as tensions rise over the country’s territorial dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea (WPS), a US-based cybersecurity company said.

The company Resecurity, which has worked with Philippine authorities to trace back the source of attacks to online facilities in China and Vietnam, said the number of “malicious cyber activity” against the Philippines has almost quadrupled compared to the same period in 2023.

The company said 55 percent of malicious cyber activities were hack-and-leak, 35 percent were misinformation and influence campaigns, and 10 percent were distributed denial-of-service (DDoS).

Hack-and-leak operations include the use of cyber tools to gain access to sensitive or secret material that is then released to the public.

Misinformation and influence campaigns, on the other hand, include infiltrating social media platforms and blurring the line between fact and fiction.

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A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic.

The recent massive spike in cyber misinformation and hacking against the Philippines coincides with rising tensions between the country and China over the WPS.

Resecurity said 80 percent of the cyberattacks target Philippine government institutions, while 20 percent focus on educational institutions.

Shawn Loveland, Resecurity chief operating officer, said in a recent blog post that these cyberattacks aim to “discredit the government and create chaos via cyberspace, as the Philippine population also relies on digital media channels and is active on social media networks.”

Loveland said the cyberattacks correlate with disinformation campaigns related to the long-standing territorial dispute between the Philippines and China over areas in the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea.

Resecurity also mentioned the “audio deep fake” of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supposedly ordering military action against China.

In February, Philippine government agencies announced they had repelled a cyberattack from hackers suspected to be based in China.

According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), multiple government departments had been targeted in the attack.

The DICT stressed that identifying the service and the territory the attacks originated from was not an attempt to blame Beijing.

This prompted lawmakers to demand an urgent briefing on the national security issue.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez said the revelation that hackers, suspected to be operating from China, have infiltrated the email systems and internal websites of various government agencies is a “matter of national security and public interest.”

Romualdez said that as it targeted “critical domains,” the incident “signifies a dire need for an immediate and comprehensive response.”

China has offered to help the Philippine government following reports of cyberattacks against various email addresses and websites of government agencies, including the Philippine Coast Guard, as well as the private website of President Marcos.

China expressed its willingness to help to determine and identify those behind the cyberattacks.

But Resecurity said that while some of the attacks might resemble those of hacktivists, it believes that state-backed hackers from China or possibly North Korea are really to blame.

Resecurity has reported over 12 government organizations in the Philippines being targeted in the same timeframe — hallmarks of a well-organized coordinated attack by state actors rather than independent hacktivists.

“Leveraging hacktivist-related monikers allows threat actors to avoid attribution while creating the perception of homegrown social conflict online,” Resecurity said.

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