Marcos ‘frustrated’ amid hacking of gov’t agencies, DICT exec says

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. expressed frustration amid the data leaks in government agencies, an official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Friday.

Interviewed on Dobol B TV, DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said Marcos on Thursday made a call to the department and instructed it to be proactive and to enhance its defense.

“Kahapon (Yesterday), the President called us and he's really very frustrated of what's happening here. And he actually told us that we should really beef up our defenses,” Dy said.

“He wants to know the technical details. Sabi nga niya (He said) we shouldn't be reacting after the fact, we should be preparing before it happens,” he added.

Initially, it was reported that Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) was hit by a cyber attack that resulted in the leak of some of its data.

This was followed by the same issues in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the Philippine National Police (PNP)

On Thursday, DICT spokesperson Renato Paraiso said that the department has identified the suspect behind the data breach in PSA.

Dy said the suspect who posted and leaked the data from PSA and DOST are the same. —Joviland Rita/ VAL, GMA Integrated News