The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has reported a significant cyberattack on the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The incident, which was detected earlier this week, has resulted in approximately 2 terabytes of data being affected, potentially making it one of the largest breaches in terms of data size.

Aboy Paraiso, a spokesperson for DICT, confirmed the breach and noted that the agency is collaborating with the DOST to attempt to recover the lost data. The scope of the attack is still under investigation, and there is particular concern about the potential exposure of sensitive research information as well as the personal details of DOST employees and scientists.

While DICT is still confirming the exact nature of the compromised data, Paraiso expressed worries that personnel information might have been included in the breach. The cyber advocacy group “Deep Web Konek” was the first to report the incident, alleging that a well-known threat actor managed to infiltrate critical network components, leading to the breach of 25 terabytes of data—significantly more than what DICT has confirmed so far.

In addition to the data compromise, the attackers defaced the DOST website with political messages denouncing political dynasties and opposing Charter change, using the hashtag #opEDSA.

The implications of such a data breach are severe, according to Dominic Ligot, Founder and Director of Data Ethics. Ligot highlighted the potential impact on DOST’s operations if data, particularly without backups, was deleted. He also emphasized the possible sensitivity of the information at risk, including personal identifiable information (PII) of people in the DOST, which could be exploited for identity theft or further breaches.

To provide context, Ligot compared this breach to the alleged leak at PhilHealth, which reportedly involved 600GB of data, making the DOST incident more than 25 times larger. However, he also suggested that the large size could be because of files like videos and images.

Source: ABS-CBN News

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