The Bureau of Customs is strengthening its cybersecurity system following a digital attack on its stored information early this month, BOC Assistant Commissioner Philip Maronilla reported during the Satuday News Forum in Quezon City.

Maronilla revealed that they are currently working with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to have stronger cybersecurity measures installed in the agency’s system.

The DICT has stated that it was verifying the size of the data breach, as it noted that their initial findings pointed to the BOC’s reporting system being affected by the digital attack. It explained that this reporting system serves as a communication line among BOC units.

The cyber attackers identified themselves as DeathNote Hackers PH, Philippine Hacking University, and Excommunicado, the DICT said.

According to cyber threat intelligence group Deep Web Konek, the cyber attackers targeted the personal information of more than 2,200 employees and about 80,000 customers of the BOC.

“The DICT is now looking into it, and an investigation has already been launched by the National Privacy Commission and the Bureau of Customs to determine possible lapses, and why this came about,” Maronilla shared.

The Customs official said that they are also looking into the agency’s Customer Care Portal System (CCPS), which brought continuous services during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic for safer and non-face-to-face transactions. He commented that the information submitted in the CCPS system might have been compromised by the data breach.

“We found out that there was a breach there so there might be information submitted in the CCPS system of the Bureau of Customs that might have been compromised,” Maronilla stressed.

He added that they have long put a firewall that bars employees to access any entertainment or social media applications while on the premises of the BOC using their system and authorized devices who can access their network.

Meanwhile, Maronilla announced that 96.99% or 161 out of the 166 processes of the BOC are now digitalized, making it easy for consumers to acquire its services.

The remaining three percent that are yet to be digitalized are those processes that need inter-linkages with other government agencies, in which majority of it are still waiting for other agencies to upgrade their respective digital systems so that the BOC can integrate, he added.

📷 Saturday News Forum