China has denied and described as “groundless” the allegations that Chinese hackers attempted to breach the email systems and internal websites of several Philippine government agencies.
Still, Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday sought an inquiry into the recent cyberattack emanating from state-owned China Unicom which targeted Philippine agencies, including those involved in safeguarding the West Philippine Sea, as considered this a major cyberattack.
This comes a day after Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Monday called for an immediate briefing from the Department of Information and Communications Technology on the cyberattacks, saying this was an issue on national security.
The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines stressed that Beijing “firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyber-attack in accordance with law, allows no country or individual to engage in cyber-attack, and other illegal activities on Chinese soil or using Chinese infrastructure.”
The embassy also deplored the malicious imputations accusing China of engaging in cyber-attacks against government offices in the Philippines.
“Some Filipino officials and media maliciously speculated about and groundlessly accused China of engaging in cyber-attacks against the Philippines, even [going] as far as connecting these cyber-attacks with the South China Sea disputes,” the embassy said in a statement.
“Such remarks are highly irresponsible,” it added.
The Chinese official said cybersecurity is a “global challenge” and called on countries to safeguard cybersecurity through dialogue and cooperation.
Earlier, the Philippine Coast Guard said its website remained secure following reports of hacking attempts on government agencies.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) over the weekend said that hackers believed to be operating from China breached the email systems and internal websites of government agencies that used a cloud service provider, most likely to gather information.
DICT Undersecretary for Cybersecurity Jeff Ian Dy said the department, in cooperation with the cloud service provider, detected and mitigated the situation from further escalation by shutting down the access of hackers.
Dy also clarified that the DICT is not accusing the Chinese government of any involvement in the attempted hacking incident, only that it found out that the “threat actors were operating from within Chinese territory.”
He identified it as China Unicom, which is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator.