China ready to help Philippines track down hackers – DICT

MANILA, Philippines —  China is ready to work with the Marcos administration to track down the hackers who targeted the websites of several Philippine state agencies, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters at Malacañang, DICT Secretary Ivan Uy said China has reached out to Philippine authorities to ask if it could cooperate in the efforts against those behind the hacking attempts.

“Cooperation has to come, you know, as a mutual activity. So, they are willing to help, they have mentioned that if we can share with them what happened so they can find who are behind it,” Uy said.

“So we are open to working with everybody,” he added.

Earlier, the DICT said cybersecurity experts have foiled attempts to attack Philippine government websites and emails. The IP addresses of the hackers were traced to Chinese state-owned telecommunications company China Unicom or China United Network Communications Group.

The hackers reportedly tried to penetrate email addresses linked to the DICT, Philippine Coast Guard, National Coast Watch and the websites of President Marcos and Cabinet members.

The Chinese government, through its embassy in the Philippines, has denied involvement in the hacking attempts, describing the allegation as “irresponsible. It added that it does not permit any illegal act, including cyberattacks.

Asked whether the attacks were related to the West Philippine Sea dispute, Uy replied:“Well, that’s not for us to come out with that conclusion yet. It’s too early. But anything is possible. So we just need to, I think, currently take it at face value and see how things develop.”

Uy recalled a raid against a “scam center” in Pasay, which led to the arrest of some 600 persons, 200 of them Chinese. He said the scammers had targeted citizens from Mandarin-speaking areas like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

“Once we prosecute these people, China wants them to be deported eventually to their country so they can properly prosecute these people who are attacking their citizens and compromising also their cybersecurity,” Uy said.

During a sectoral meeting last Tuesday, Marcos approved the National