Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-J6S
- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech and Digital News
PASIG CITY (SDN) — From out of the blue, without a hint, denizens of the Dark Web pounce on unsuspecting companies, government agencies, healthcare institutions, and other organizations big and small to steal personal identifiable information (PII) and monetize the data they can lay their hands on.
Data breaches have become the bane of any organization that has a treasure trove of data — customers’ passwords, bank accounts, names, and any data that cyber criminals see the face of the greenbacks. Not even small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are spared from attacks. In fact, not even individuals are safe.
Apple, Meta (re: Facebook), Twitter and other companies and organizations have been hit by data breaches in just the past 12 months this year, among other tech titans in the business world.
These data breaches perpetrated by advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, or by the lone wolf hackers, are not about to go away.
SDN – SciTech & Digital News have asked cybersecurity experts a few times if there is a cure- or prevent-all solution to prevent hacking, like a silver bullet for wolves in the movie world. “There’s no silver bullet for cybersecurity attacks,” they admit.
For good or bad, artificial intelligence or AI has made businesses more resilient but at the same time the cyber bad guys have also become more adaptive to new trends in the cybersecurity environment. Hackers have put themselves, more often than not, a few steps ahead of government agents pursuing cyber criminals.
Phishing have remained the biggest threat of them all, with hackers counting on human error or weaknesses. Ransomware attacks continue to rise and, as the year 2024 draws to a close, it’s safe to say a record-breaker for APT groups.
Remember the United States’ T-Mobile? The telecommunications company, says https://tech.co, suffered a data breach in 2021 which forced it to cough up $350 million in 2022. One would think the American enterprise would have learned a lesson from the debacle. But no. In the case of T-Mobile, lightning struck not once, not twice, but thrice with customers data pilfered again every time.
It seems no one is immune from cyber threats, not even one of the sworn guardians of the internet. Consider this: Fortinet, a cybersecurity company itself, was also hit by a data breach. A hacker leaked 440 GB worth reportedly of the firms’ customers.
As many would know, the Philippines is no stranger to data breaches.
One of these data thefts involved the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) which suffered a cybersecurity incident in September 2o22 that compromised the data of 42 million members.
In fact, a report on https://globalnation.inquirer.net/ showed that out of 250 countries and territories the Philippines is ranked 29th with the most data breaches, and that’s only from April 1 to June 30, 2024. The newspaper cited the ranking that Surfshark, a Norway-based virtual network provider, came up with as the Philippines registered 385,000 data breaches in just the 2Q2024.
_________
“We are serving close to eight million customers. We would like to assure our customers that our cybersecurity is intact.”
Fortunately for its millions of registered customers, over at the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), the Philippines’ biggest provider of electric power, there’s been no incident of a data breach.
Spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga, told the weekly Kapihan sa Metro East Media Forum on Wednesday, October 30, the company has eight million customers.
SDN asked him about the company’s cybersecurity environment as he fielded questions from the journalists and bloggers present at the media event.
It is safe to say that with the data trove under its care, Meralco presents a tantalizing target for cyber criminals. Zaldarriaga, Meralco’s vice president for Corporate Communications, revealed the company has not suffered any breach of data.
“In fact, we a put a premium and priority on cybersecurity,” he informs the media members.
Wala pa pong pagkakataon na na-compromised ‘yong internal security ng Meralco, Sapagkat ‘yan po ay ginugugulan namin ng hindi lamang expertise ng aming mga personnel, hindi lang ng panahon kundi pati ng resources.” (There was no instance that Meralco’s internal security was compromised. It is because we provide not only for our personnel’s expertise, not only time, but also resources.)
“We make sure that we are impenetrable. So far, we have been ahead of the curve. Wala pong instances na na-compromised ‘yon safety and data ng customers namin, maging ng aming tanggapan.” (There were no instances the safety and data of our customers and even our company were compromised.)
Zaldarriaga is confident of Meralco’s capabilities to ward off cyber threats.
“So, I am very confident that Meralco, as always, will put a premium on data security or cybersecurity. But rest the data in the hands of Meralco are safe.
“We are serving close to eight million customers. We would like to assure our customers that our cybersecurity is intact,” the Meralco official assures. (/)