DICT in talks with China over hacking attempts on Philippine...

THE DEPARTMENT of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said on Wednesday that it is in talks with the Chinese government after discovering that hackers from China were behind a series of attempts to break into Philippine government websites. "The recent development is that we talked and the Chinese government reached out to the Philippines. They also wanted to crack down hackers and these criminals," DICT Assistant Secretary Renato A. Paraiso told BusinessWorld by phone. In January, hackers using Chinese internet protocol (IP) addresses tried to breach the official website of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). Mr. Paraiso said the DICT has traced the attempted hacking incidents on OWWA and the Philippine Coast Guard to the jurisdiction of China. "We identified these hackers. We have traced their IP addresses within the territorial jurisdiction of China. Then,...