NICA: China-backed hacking groups 'operating, targeting' PH

The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) on Tuesday confirmed that China-backed hacking groups are "operating or targeting" the Philippines, including the government.

NICA Deputy Director General Ashley Acedillo stated this at the last Senate hearing into the illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) when Senator Risa Hontiveros was verifying information that the Philippines is a victim country of espionage activities through cybercrime.

"With the information that we have, we can confirm that indeed, Chinese advanced persistent threat groups are operating or targeting the Philippines, whether government or private sector entities. We have monitored some of them," Acedillo said as he asked for an executive session to disclose more details on the matter.

According to Acedillo, advanced persistent threat (APT) is a cybersecurity term which is a "polite way of describing state-backed or state-affiliated advanced and highly sophisticated hacking groups."

"Why are they called advanced persistent threats? They are differentiated from the normal individual hackers or the disorganized or non-sophisticated hackers because of their resources, the personnel that they have, and the sophisticated skills that they possess. So much so that they are believed to be largely state-trained or state-sponsored or state-backed," the NICA official explained.

"They provide a convenient cut-out for certain countries which we call revisionist countries that seek to upend the international global order. They seek to achieve certain asymmetric advantages without using state resources and providing a convenient, deniable link to such groups," he added.

In February, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) disclosed that hackers believed to be operating in China breached into the email systems and internal websites of several government agencies that used a cloud service provider.

Specifically for the Philippines, Dy said the hackers targeted those with “gov.ph” domains.

China, however, dismissed the DICT's claim and tagged it as "groundless" and "irresponsible." — VDV, GMA Integrated News