Glitch hits Viber; hacker warning out

MANILA, Philippines — The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) issued a public alert after glitches were discovered in messaging platform Viber, resulting in failed attempts to send video and file transfers among users.

The CICC’s recently established Consumer Application Monitoring System (CAMS) detected the glitch yesterday.

“We have detected continuous failed attempts to send video and file transfers using the Viber system in multiple cities covered by the CAMS platform both domestically and internationally since 10 a.m. today while messaging and voice calls have been successful,” the advisory stated.

“CAMS is working well in detecting problems and in protecting consumers from cybercriminals,” said CICC executive director Alexander Ramos.

“We cannot be certain at this point in time what is happening on Viber, but we are currently requesting information from Rakuten,” CICC deputy executive director Mary Rose Magsaysay told The STAR.

Refund

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill institutionalizing refund mechanisms for telecommunications service outages.

With 278 votes, the lower chamber passed House Bill 9021 or the “Refund for Internet and Telecommunications Services Outages and Disruptions Act” during the plenary session yesterday.

Public telecommunications entities (PTE), including internet service providers (ISP), shall be mandated to “provide a refund credit to a customer, or adjust a customer’s bill, who was adversely affected by an Internet service outage or interruption for an aggregate period of 24 hours or more, within a month.”

The measure also requires PTEs to do so on a “pro-rated basis.”

A refund is not warranted if the reason for the outage is