ANAKALUSUGAN party-list Rep. Mike Defensor on Sunday said hackers of over 700 deposit accounts of BDO Unibank customers “must be captured fast” to prevent further attacks.
He urged the National Bureau of Investigation to swiftly arrest those behind the hackers of affected BDO depositors as he raised the possibility it may be a dry-run of an even bigger threat.
“Until and unless the suspects are apprehended and interrogated in custody, we may never know their real motives, aside from the cyber theft of a few million pesos,” he said.
“Assuming the suspects are planning further attacks elsewhere, then their capture should effectively thwart them,” he added.
He said the arrest of those hackers and their prosecution would be the “best deterrence” to other bigger cyber threats.
He said authorities must not discount the possibility that the hackers were merely out to stage a “rehearsal” ahead of potentially bigger attacks against other financial institutions.
“What is clear is that the hackers succeeded in breaching the defenses of a bank’s computer system, and they now have an idea as to how much time they need to break in and escape with the loot before they are discovered,” he said.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas confirmed the hackers of nearly 700 BDO Unibank accounts have already been identified.
Two to four persons, who are neither BDO nor Union Bank of the Philippines employees, were also unmasked, and that the real persons behind “Mark Nagoyo” were also identified.
The BSP said they filed the necessary information with the National Bureau of Investigation and PhilippineNational Police.